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MANUAL OF 
NATURAL THEOLOGY 



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MANUAL OF 
NATURAL THEOLOGY 



GEORGE PARK FISHER, D.D., LL.D, 

TITUS STREET PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN YALE UNIVERSITY 



-r; ^y ' 



7- 

NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1893 



A 



^^'!' 

-f-^ 



Copyright, 1893, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



PEEFAOE 

When I wrote the little volume entitled " Man- 
ual of Christian Evidences/' I intended, in case it 
should prove to be acceptable and useful, to pre- 
pare a preliminary volume of a like character and 
compass on Natural Theology. The present book 
has been written to carry out that purpose. It 
is designed, like its predecessor, for readers and 
-pupils who have not time for the study of more 
extended treatises.^ It is unavoidable that the 
subject of Natural Theology should call for a 
somewhat more severe exercise of attention and 
reflection on their part than was necessary in con- 
nection with the former book. But I have tried 
to make the discussion as plain as is consistent 
with thoroughness. 

The necessities of man which Natural Keligion 

* A more full and elaborate discussion I have presented in 
'' The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief" (Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, 1883). 



vi PREFACE 

fails to meet, and which constitute the ground of 
the need of Revelation, are pointed out in the 
"• Manual of Christian Evidences," Chapter III. 

Modern views of Evolution of necessity modify 
the method of dealing with the evidences of The- 
ism. But the new scientific doctrine, so far as it 
can be said to have established itself in the creed 
of Naturalists of highest repute, has the effect, I 
am persuaded, to fortify rather than to weaken 
the argument of design. 

G. P. F. 

New Haven, January 12, 1893. 



COIsTTEI^TS 



CHAPTER I. 



The Nature and Origin of Religion, 

Meaning of the Term " Religion," 
Origin of Religion Distinct from its Proofs, . 
Erroneous Theories as to the Origin of Religion, 
No Distinct Faith-f acuity, .... 
The Radical Sources of Religion, 
Self-revelation of God, .... 

Office of the Arguments for the Being of God, 



CHAPTER II. 



The Cosmological Argument for the Being of God, 10 
The Principle of Causation, . . . . .10 

Cause more than mere Antecedence, . . . .11 

An Eternal Something. 12 

Theory of an Infinite Series, 12 

Cause Implies " First Cause," 14 

The First Cause a Free Cause, . . ... .14 

The Source of Natural Phenomena in Will, . .16 

Truth in Polytheistic Religions, . . . . .17 

The Unity of God, 17 



VIH 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER III. 

The Argument of Design, . 

Meaning of Analogy, . 

It is an Inductive Argument, 

Significance of " Final Causes," 

Chief and Subordinate Ends, 

*' Works of Nature " and " Works of Man," 

Is Adaptation an a priori Principle ? . 

Rationality of Nature, ..... 

Adaptations not mere " Conditions of Existence/ 

Design in the Structure of the Eye, 

Alleged Defects in the Eye, 

Variations in the Eye among Animals, 

Design in the Structure of the Ear, 

Wonderful Mechanism of the Ear, 

Evolution : Its Meaning and Its Types, 

*' Natural Selection," .... 

Design Implied in the Darwinian Theory, 

The Broadest Theory of Evolution, 

The Atomic Theory in Lucretius, 

Design Still Presupposed, . 

Molecular Physics and Design, . 

Evolution of the Eye and the Ear Implies Design, 

Argument of Design Strengthened by the Doctrine of 

Evolution, ...... 

Design Conspicuous in Living Organisms, . 
Design Evinced in Comparative Anatomy, . 
Beauty and Sublimity in Nature prove Design, 
Objection from the Operations of Instinct and the 

Growth of Plants, 
The. Several Sciences Illustrate Design, 
Design in the Basis of Human Society, 
Extent of Divine Power, 
The Unity of God, .... 
Does Design Prove Creation ? 



CONTEXTS 



IX 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Moral Argument, .... 
The Freedom of the Will, . 
Alleged Occult Causes of Choice, . 
Alleged Uniformity of Choices, 
Conscious Subjection to Moral Law, 
Conscience not a Form of Self-love, 
Consciousness of a Righteous Lawgiver, 
The Benevolence of God Inferred, 
A Righteous Moral Governor, 
Proof of the Benevolence of God, 
The Problem of Evil, .... 
Doctrine of God's Goodness Impregnable, 
Metaphysical Evil, .... 

Physical Evil, • 

Moral Evil, 



PAGE 

. 56 

. 56 

. 57 

. 58 

. 60 

. 60 

. 62 

. 62 

. 63 

64 

65 

, 65 

66 

, 67 



CHAPTER V. 



The Intuition of the Infinite and Absolute 
What the Terms Denote, 
Perception of the Finite and the Relative, 
The Unconditioned, .... 
The Infinite and Absolute is Personal, 
The Infinitude of God's Attributes, 



72 
72 
73 
72 
73 
74 



CHAPTER VI. 

Anti-theistic Theories, 75 

Materialism Defined, . . . . . . .75 

No Bridge Between Mind and Matter, . . . .75 

The Conservation of Energy Lends no Support to Ma- 
terialism, 76 



CONTENTS 



Reciprocal Influence of Mind and Body, 
Absurdities of Materialism, .... 
Materialism Contradicts the Moral Sentiments, 
Argument from Conscience against Materialism, 
Forms of Pantheism, . . . . . 
Assumptions of Pantheism, .... 
Pantheism Inconsistent with Conscience, 
Positivism Self-contradictory, 
Positivism Driven to a Dilemma, 
Herbert Spencer's Agnostic Theory, 
Agnosticism Self-contradictory, . 
Religion on a Level with Science, 
Agnosticism Denies Free-will, . . . 
Alleged '' Relativity of Knowledge,'' . 



PAGE 

. 76 
, 77 
. 78 
. 79 

. 81 

. 82 
. 82 
, 82 
, 83 
. 83 
, 84 
, 84 
. 85 
, 85 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Future Life of the Soul, . . . 

Future Life not Proven by the mere Desire for It, 
Materialism Excluded, , . . . 

Proof from Capacity for Progress, 
God's Moral Government Incomplete Here, 
Life a Probation, ...... 

Man's Capacity for Fellowship with God, 



87 
87 
87 
88 
89 
90 
91 



NOTE 

The Ontological Argument, 
The Argument of Anselm, . 
Objections and Answers, 



93 
93 
94 



NATURAL THEOLOGY 
CHAPTEE L 

THE NATUEE AND OEIGIN OF KELIGION 

It is the proYince of Theology to present an ac- 
curate statement of the truths and evidences of 

religion. Natural Theology deals with 
Natural The- one branch of the subject. It embraces 

the doctrines and proofs which are dis- 
coverable by " the light of Nature ; " that is to say, 
by reason independently of aid from a special rev- 
elation. Hence Natural Theology makes no appeal 
to the authority of that revelation which Chris- 
tians, mth good reason, believe to have been made 
to mankind and to be recorded in the Bible. ^'Ee- 
What is Re- Hgion," in the general sense of the term, 
iigion? signifies the beliefs of men respecting a 
supernatural power, or powers, together with the 
feelings and practices connected with such beliefs. 
The word " Eeligion " is derived, not, as it has 
often been thought, from the Latin word religdre, 
signifying " to bind " — in which case the reference 



2 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

would be to the bond uniting man to objects of 
faith and worship ; but it comes probably from 
reUgere, meaning " to ponder " — the idea being a 
reverential consideration of divine things. In the 
meaning usually attached to the term in former 
days, and at present, unless one has occasion to look 
beyond the limits of Christendom, " Religion " is 
synonymous with Theism ; and by Theism is 
meant the exclusive recognition of one personal 
God, with certain cardinal beliefs concerning man 
and his destiny which are commonly linked to 
Theistic doctrine. 

We must not confound the origin of religion, or 
the way in which religious beliefs and feelings 
The origin Spring up in the human soul, with the 
distincf ffom proofs of religion. It is possible that 
18 proofs, ^]2en the rise of religion in the soul is 
considered, there may be deduced from its very 
genesis, as a fact of experience, valid evidence of 
its truth. Yet there is a difference not to be over- 
looked between our spontaneous impressions and 
beliefs, and the convictions that rest upon the 
ground of reasoning and reflection. 

As to the origin of religion, various theories 
which once had their advocates are now obsolete. 

Theory Oho opiuiou that did not lack champions 
i^t^cunmng iH the past is that religion was at the 
contrivance. ^^^^^^ ^ device of shrewd statesmen and 
law-givers, who invented it as a means of managing 



THE N ATTIRE AND ORIGIN OF RELIGION 3 

the rude mass of mankind whom they could im- 
press by its hopes and terrors. A kindred the- 
ory traced religion to the cunning of priests, who 
contrived by its agency to build up their sway. 
A sufficient answer to conjectures of this class is 
that unless there were beforehand native, pow- 
erful tendencies to religion in the human breast, 
no devices of knavish leaders to establish their 
control by such means would be of any avail. 
There would be no response to their appeals. 
There would be no materials in human nature out 
of which to forge their instrument. Another old 
Theory theory was that religion is born of ir- 
springs^iom rational fear. Surrounded by the un- 
fear. kuown, men are afraid as children are 

frightened in the dark. There is no doubt that 
fear has much to do with the growth of various 
forms of superstition ; but religion is too vast 
and enduring a superstructure to rest on so slen- 
der a foundation. It is nearer the truth to say 
that religion engenders fear, than that fear engen- 
ders religion. Another ancient method of ac- 
counting for the religions of the world, which has 
been revived of late, is that they are the offspring 
of dreams. Savasjes dream of the dead 

Theory 

that religion whom they have known, especially of de- 
is the off- *^ _ . _^ . "^ _ 
spring of ccascd parcuts, and mistake these phan- 

dreams. ■"■ , ■*• 

tasms for real persons. When, in this 
way, belief in the existence and agency of ghosts has 



4 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

been produced, it is said to be a short step to in- 
voke them, and to connect with them other sorts 
of religious service. Homage paid to dead ances- 
tors, thus arising, is pronounced to be everywhere 
the primitive type of religion. This theory de- 
rives whatever plausibility pertains to it from the 
circumstance that in the religions of savage tribes, 
the influence of dreams plays a prominent part. 
It partakes of the superficiality of those parallel 
theories which would find the basis of conscience 
and morality, not in the constitution of the soul, 
but in the experiences of pleasure and pain, or in 
other sources purely empirical. Historically, the 
dream-theory is untenable, since the most ancient 
forms of religion among heathen nations are not 
capable of being traced to the origin alleged. This 
is true, for example, of the religions of the Aryan 
races. 

Not more tenable is " animism," the opinion that 
the origin of all worship is in the idea of savages 
that souls make their abode in things liv- 
ing and inanimate. But many gods are 
simply personified forces of nature. The impres- 
sion from grand objects, like the sun and the sky, 
even the feelings of conscience, and a haunting 
sense of the supernatural, are among the sources 
of great religions, and even help to shape the wor- 
ship of rudest tribes. Moreover, it is an assump- 
tion that the primitive man was a savage. 



TEE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF RELIGION 5 

Some would ascribe religion to a primitive, mirac- 
ulous revelation. But this would imply in man what 
may be called a religious nature. To sup- 
primitive rev- pose that the fundamental truths of re- 
ligion gain a lodgement in the mind and 
heart as we learn about a remote country from a 
traveller, there being no previous affinity for these 
truths, no reaching out after God, is hardly less un- 
satisfactory than the several theories noticed above. 

It is a mistake to suppose that there is an in- 
ternal faculty of faith, a special organ of spiritual 
No distinct visiou, Corresponding to the eye by which 
faith-faculty. ^^ perceive the things of sense. The 
objects of faith are things in their nature invisible, 
or at all events still in the future. Faith is the 
mind's confidence in their reality, although it can 
be verified by no such experimental test as we can 
apply in the sciences resting on observation. Yet 
faith, if it be reasonable, is not without sufficient 
evidence, although of a different kind. The fun- 
damental truths of religion are not demonstrable 
like the theorems of geometry. The data on which 
The data of ^hese trutlis rcst are not present in the 
faith. same form and degree in every mind. 
With regard to this point, much depends on the 
state of conscience and moral sensibility, whether 
or not it be sound and normal. In this province, 
more than in some others, the bent of the judgment 
varies with the bent of character. The inward 



6 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

certitude of faith is a feeling, but that feeling, it 
must not be forgotten, has a reasonable ground. 

In order to arrive at a correct view of the gene- 
sis of religion we must direct our attention to its 
permanent constituents. What are the 

The true ^ i .i . • i. i - -l 

genesis of re- elements that persist and appear in its 
purest and maturest form ? In what does 
the life of religion consist? What is the inde- 
structible root that lives on when rude, wild off- 
shoots from it have withered away? Eeligious 
perceptions may be undeveloped. They may be 
obscure. They may be perverted into a thousand 
fantastic phases of opinion and sentiment. So the 
aesthetic nature may be gratified for a while with 
the coarsest products of art. A bonfire may be ad- 
mired more than a sunset, and the daub of a village 
sign-painter preferred to a madonna of Raphael ; 
but we do not thence conclude that there is no 
sense of beauty native to the soul. Because the 
moral nature may be seemingly paralyzed, misdi- 
rected by passion, so far perverted as to lend a tem- 
porary approval to acts of savage cruelty, we do 
not infer that conscience is no essential function of 
the human spirit, or that there is no objective, im- 
mutable standard of right. In like manner the 
multiplicity of religions, with the herd of super- 
stitions connected with them, does not disprove the 
reality of religion as a normal function of our nat- 
ure, but rather supports its claim to be so regarded. 



THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF RELIGION 7 

When we explore for the sources of religious faith 
we are brought finally to the feelings of depend- 
ence and of oblio;ation, and to the native 

Theradical . p i /» • . • p 

eoiircesofre- yearning of the finite spirit for a deeper 
and more satisfying rest and fellowship. 
When the meaning of the word " I " dawns upon 
the soul, there is a consciousness, however vague, 
of individuality, of distinction from things without. 
We are conscious of the power to act upon things 
external, including our own physical organism. 
Yet, at the same time, we are conscious of being 
acted upon by them. Along with the sense of lim- 
itation in relation to the world without, we find in 
our freedom and self -activity the assurance that it 
is not upon the world without that we are depend- 
ent for our being. The consciousness of self as a 
finite spirit includes a nascent consciousness of a 
Spirit Infinite " in whom we live," who is the ground 
of that being which knows itself as neither self- 
originated nor yet as of a piece with its environment 
of matter. But along with the sense of freedom, 
of personal agency, there awakes in the soul the 
consciousness of a moral law independent of the 
will, of a voice within speaking with authority. 
The Being on whom we are dependent is recog- 
nized in the depths of the soul as a righteous law- 
giver. The mandates of conscience are felt to be 
His injunctions. There is a sense of accountable- 
ness to Him. But besides these feelings of depend- 



8 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

ence and of obligation, there spring up yearnings 
for communion with the Being thus acknowledged 
or divined to exist. There is a craving for rest in 
Him. There are feelings of awe and reverence, of 
thankfulness and love, which flow out toward the 
Being thus revealed to the soul as the soul's nature 
is unfolded to itself. Of course it is not pretended 
that faith in God is, at the outset, explicit. It is 
undevei- germinaut, not developed. It may be a 
?erttrfo?ms surmise more than a belief. It may 
of religion, ^^ist morc as an inkling, a presentiment, 
than as a clear perception. Nor is it overlooked 
that there may be mental unripeness and moral 
degradation where, in the room of faith in the liv- 
ing God, there arises a superstitious belief in '' gods 
many and lords many." Nor, again, is it forgotten 
that an atheistic mood may grow up which para- 
lyzes faith, or a moral recklessness that silences 
the testimonies within. Nevertheless it i^ true that 
the seeds of religion are in this spontaneous con- 
sciousness of a bond uniting us to the Author and 
Sustainer of our being, call it a natural faith, a re- 
ligious susceptibility, a '' consciousness of God," or 
by whatever other name one may choose to desig- 
nate it. It is not, be it observed, a blind, irrational 
feeling. However confused it may be at the outset, 
a rational element enters into it. A like indistinct- 
ness likewise belongs at the outset to the percep- 
tion of material objects by tbe senses. 



TElB JSTATdEE AND ORIGIN OF RELIGION 9 

Nothing can be known of God, not even His ex- 
istence, except through the manifestations which 
God's self- He makes of Himself, or his self-revela- 
h^J'w ^pp^i^ tion. This addresses itself not to the 
hended. reason exclusively, but also to the con- 
science and the affections. As in relation to a visible 
object there must be an open eye to behold it, and as 
in the case of audible sounds there must be an ear 
to hear, so, if one would apprehend the self-revela- 
tion of God, there must be in the soul an exercise of 
the power of discernment. And this is inseparable 
from that prior life of religion in the soul which has 
been briefly delineated in the foregoing remarks. 

The proofs of the being of God are so many self- 
disclosures which He makes in the world as it pre- 
office of sents itself to the senses, or falls under 
^nts^onhe ^he eye of consciousness. They elicit, 
bemgofGod. enlighten, and fortify the spontaneous 
belief which is native to the human spirit. The 
so-called proofs are the recognition of God from 
different points of view. They bring Him before 
us in various aspects of His being and character. 
In the cosmological proof we discern Him as the 
eternal, self-existent Cause of all things that are. 
In the argument of Design, we are brought face to 
face with His wisdom. In the moral argument we 
are enabled to recognize His moral perfections.^ 

^ For remarks on the " Ontological Argument," see the Note 
at the end of the volume. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE BEING OF 

GOD 

That nothing can occur, or come into being, 
without a cause is a self-evident truth. As it ad- 
mits of no demonstration, so it requires 
pie of causa- noue, siucc the contrary is inconceivable. 
And by this it is not simply meant that 
we cannot imagine, or make a mental picture, of 
an uncaused occurrence. We know that an occur- 
rence uncaused is not possible. Suppose nothing 
whatever to exist and the universe to be an in- 
finite void. We know as well as we know anything 
that nothing could ever come into being. But it is 
not more difficult to believe that something may be- 
gin to exist when nothing existed before than it is 
to believe that something may begin to exist which 
has no connection whatever with anything before 
it. If a given phenomenon which we will desig- 
nate by the letter &, follows upon another phenom- 
enon which we will designate as a, yet on the sup- 
position that there is no nexus between a and h- — 



THE COSMOLOGICAL AUGUMEKT H 

that a exerts not the slightest influence in giving 
existence to h — it is plain that we might as well 
think of a as absent altogether. For a does not lend 
us a jot of aid in accounting for the occurrence of 
6. If it were found or assumed that a is the in- 
variable antecedent of h — that is, that h never oc- 
curs save in this association with a, the conclusion 
is the same. It has been maintained by some that 
Theoiy of the foundation of the causal idea is the 

** customary .... . t r. 

association." customarj associatiou m our mmds oi 
one thing with another. The habit of associating 
in our thoughts one thing with another — for ex- 
ample, fire with a burning sensation when our flesh 
is brought into contact with it — is due to a mental 
law. This law or process of association is inde- 
pendent of the will. Therefore, we attribute it to 
an imaginary necessity. Then, it is contended, 
we fancy that there is a like bond of connection in 
external things, and assume some sort of agency or 
power in the fire with which to produce the conse- 
quence. Reflection upon what has been said above 
will convince us that this solution of the problem 
of causation is wholly inadequate. There is more 
Cause more ^^ ^^^ relation of causc and effect than 
ab?e aStece- mere succcssiou or connection in time, 
dence. rpj^^ causal iutuition is ineradicable. It 

resists every attempt of the nature described to re- 
solve it into an illusion. 

Something must have existed from eternity. 



12 nATTJBAL THEOLOGY 

This is an unavoidable inference from the fact 
that something exists now. We behold the world 
An eternal and oursclves as a part of it. Phenom- 
something. ^^^ appear and disappear. Motion is 
everywhere. It is a proverbial saying that change 
is written upon everything. We are compelled 
by a necessity of thought to recognize the existence 
of an eternal something, which we may term the 
First Cause. At this point we do not inquire fur- 
ther. We do not now seek to ascertain the nature 
of the Being thus proved to exist. That inquiry 
will come up later. ^ 

Here, however, we may encounter an objection. 

Grant, it may be said, that the world presupposes 

a cause of its existence, and that we are 

an infinite shut up to this couclusiou : whv, ucvcr- 

series. *^ 

theless, may we not suppose that the 
proximate cause is preceded by one before it, and 
so on in an endless series ? We need not affirm, it 

' It may be well to make mention here of the objection of 
Kant to the cosmological argument — the argument from causa- 
tion — that the law of cause and effect is applicable only within 
the sphere of experience, in relation to Unite objects, and to 
these only as apprehended by us. But this is an assumption. 
It is a part of the scepticism which underlies the Kantian sys- 
tem. In support of it it is said that *' antinomies," or logical 
contradictions, real and insoluble, arise when the law of cause 
and effect is attempted to be applied beyond the limit thus de- 
fined. But the '^antinomies" are soluble. They have been 
shown to rest upon fallacies. 



TRE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 13 

is alleged, the existence of an eternal being ; there 
is an alternative — namely, the supposition of an 
infinite series. This objection seems plausible, 
but a little thought shows it to be fallacious. We 
require a cause, but on the track of an infinite se- 
ries there is no real cause. There is simply a re- 
gress from step to step in search for one. How 
shall we account for the last member in the sup- 
posed series? Not through the next preceding 
member ; for the power is not in that. Nor 
through the member the third in order back of the 
effect, nor anywhere beyond. The answer to the 
objection is stated in a popular way when it is said 
that "the chain hangs on nothing." The retreat 
from step to step is merely the repeated postpone- 
ment of the question. What is the cause ? The fal- 
lacious character of the hypothesis of an infinite 
series may be perceived in another way. Time is 
not an agent. It has in it no causal efficiency. 
We may, therefore, think away the element of time 
from the series. Its members are then crowded to- 
gether with no "before" or "after" in reference to 
either. Thus it becomes obvious that in the series 
there is no causal agency whatever. In fine, we do 
not explain the world, or advance an inch toward 
explaining it, when we refer it to something that 
is itself also an effect. 

In truth, we do not grasp the real significance of 
the intuition of Cause until we discern that it in- 



14 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

volves the recognition of a Cause uncaused — a self- 
existent being, dependent upon nothing beyond it- 
self. Attaining this conception the mind 
plies "First is at lest. Until then its demand for a 

Cause." 

ca^ise IS not appeased. 
We have commented on the theory of an infinite 
series. In point of fact, however, it is a theory 
which no one holds. Such as profess to 

Infinite se~ 

ries not be- disbelieve in Theism attribute self-exist- 

lieved in. 

ence to matter or to something imper- 
sonal. The supposition of an infinite regress of 
phenomena is not actually embraced. It is noth- 
ing more than a weapon to fence with, and then to 
be immediately cast away. 

There is another step to be taken in the analy- 
sis of the idea of the First Cause. An uncaused 

cause is a free cause. It is a self -mo v- 
Cause a free ing, Self -determining agency. In other 

words, it is voluntary. The self-existent 
being is endowed with Will, and being endowed 
with will is personal. The action of a power which 
is necessitated to act, or to act in a particular way, 
falls into the category of effects. In our search 
for the cause of all things that begin to be, we 
are led up to the acknowledgment of a personal 
Deity. 

When we look into the origin of our idea of 
Cause we are confirmed in the conclusion that the 
self-existent, eternal being is a voluntary agent. 



THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 15 

The human mind is triple in its faculties. It has 
the three capacities of intellect, sensibility or feel- 
id e a of ing, and will. In the department of feel- 
cause derived ..n •!• • T-IT 

from our vol- mg the miud IS passive. Jb eelmg springs 
cy. up of itself, either in the form of sensa- 

tion through contact with the outer world, or in 
the higher forms in which it may be awakened 
within us. So, with a single exception shortly to 
be noted, our processes of thought are governed 
by fixed laws of association which are quite exempt 
from our control. It is by the exertion of the will 
alone that we become conscious of power, and ar- 
rive at the notion of causation. We have no di- 
rect knowledge of anything of the nature of cause, 
nor could we ever get such knowledge, except 
through this exercise of energy in voluntary action. 
The will influences intellectual states through at- 
tention, which is a voluntary act. We can fasten 
our observation on one thing, or one idea, in pref- 
erence to another. The nascent activity of the 
will belongs to the earliest development of the 
mind. It is doubtful whether distinct perception 
would be possible without a directing of the at- 
tention to one after another of the qualities of ex- 
ternal objects, or at least without such a discrim- 
ination among the phenomena presented to the 
senses as involves the exercise of attention. Now, 
were it not for this consciousness of causal activ- 
ity in ourselves^ in our own wills, were we merely 



16 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

the subject of passive impressions from the world 
without, the conception of cause would be wanting. 
Inasmuch as the only cause of which we are 
immediately conscious is will, it is natural and 
Inference reasonable to refer the power which acts 
sou?ce of the upou US from without to a will as its di- 

operatious of . u • oi i -t 

Nature is in rect or ultcrior source. Some philoso- 

Will. . . . 

phers on this ground maintain that there 
is no other power but will-power, and that the ac- 
tivities of nature are identical with divine volitions. 
It is doubtful whether this conclusion is altogether 
justified. It is not clear how it is consistent with 
attributing a distinct reality to external nature and 
to our own mental being. Nevertheless, analogy 
inspires the belief that the forces of nature in 
their origin and continued operation are not dis- 
severed from a Supreme Will. A man by an ex- 
ertion of will raises his arm, clenches his hand, 
and strikes a blow. There is force in the arm and 
force in the fist. Yet the will initiates all, and 
were the exertion of the will suspended, the arm 
would drop powerless at his side. Following the 
suggestions of analogy, we may hold that the 
operations of nature spring from forces which are 
not only imparted by the will of God, but are also 
sustained by the same energizing will. The pre- 
cise mode of the concurrence of the original and the 
dependent agency is beyond our ken. While, then, 
analogy points us to the divine will as the fountain- 



THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 17 

head of natural forces, and as immanent and active 
in all things, we are not driven to the conclusion 
that the ordinary idea of nature as an entity is il- 
lusive. We are not obliged to conclude that 
nature is naught but an aggregate of divine voli- 
tions. 

Thus we see that the polytheistic religions were 

not in error in identifying the manifold activities 

of nature with voluntary agency. The 

Truth in . ... 

polytheistic spoutaueous fcelings of mankind in this 
particular have been in accord with the 
suggestions of philosophy. The error of polythe- 
ism lies in its splintering of that will which is im- 
manent in all the operations of nature into a plu- 
rality of personal agents, a throng of divinities, 
each active and dominant in a section of the uni- 
verse. 

How shall we confute polytheism ? What war- 
rant is there for asserting the unity of the Power 
that pervades nature ? 

In the first place, an example of such a unity is 
afforded in the operation of our own wills. We 
Unity of P^* forth a multitude of volitions; we 
fr^o m^aiiau^ ^^^I't our voluutary agency in many dif- 
^^' f erent directions ; this agency stretches 

over long periods of time ; yet the same identical 
will is the source of all these effects. To attribute 
the sources of our passive impressions collectively 
to a single Ego without, as our personal exertions 
2 



18 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

consciously emanate from a single Ego within, is 
natural and rational. 

Secondly, what logicians call the " law of parsi- 
mony " precludes us from assuming more causes to 
account for a given effect than are neces- 

The **law ^, . 

of parsi- sary. One self-existent Being suffices to 
account for the phenomena of nature. 
To postulate a plurality of such beings — were a 
plurality of self -existent beings metaphysically pos- 
sible — would compel the conclusion that they are 
either in concord or in conflict. 

Thirdly, the fact that nature is one coherent sys- 
tem proves that the operations of nature spring 
from one and only one Cause. The prog- 
single sys- rcss of scicuce is Constantly levelling 
the barriers which might be imagined to 
divide the visible universe into distinct and sepa- 
rate provinces. Men speak of the heavens and the 
earth ; but the earth belongs in the starry system. 
The earth is a planet, and with its associate planets 
is one of countless similar groups, not alien from 
one another, but bound together to form the stellar 
universe. The unity of the world proves the unity 
of God. 



CHAPTEE in. 

THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 

The marks of design in nature reveal to us its 
intelligent author. For the same reason that we 
recognize an intelligent cause in the case of count- 
less products of human agency whose particular 
origin and authorship we know not, we infer an 
intelligent cause of the objects of nature. In them 
we discern equal eyidence of an end secured by the 
selection and combination of means adapted to ac- 
complish it. The signs of forethought, precon- 
ception, purpose, are just as manifest in what we 
style the works of nature as they are in the works 
Character ^^ Hiau. This modc of reasoning is often 
ment'^orie- Considered an argument from analogy. 
sign. ^Q sometimes apply the term " analogy " 

to a merely figurative likeness which the imagina- 
tion suggests ; as when we speak of the " analogy " 
between a rushing stream and the rapid utterance 
of an excited orator. This is the language of po- 
etry. But when w^e have always found that certain 
properties in an animal are united with a given 
characteristic — for example, speed — we expect, 



20 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

wherever we meet the same collection of properties, 
to find in their company this additional quality. 
This we look for with a certain degree of confi- 
dence even when no special connection between 
such properties and their associate has yet been 
detected. This is an argument from an- 

It is an in- -r» i 

ductiveargu- alogv. But the argument of design, as 

ment. , . '^ . o ^ 

J. S. Mill has pointed out^ is a genuine 
instance of inductive reasoning. " The design 
argument," says Mill, ^'is not drawn from mere 
resemblance in nature to the work of human intel- 
ligence, but from the special character of this re- 
semblance. The circumstances in which it is al- 
leged that the world resembles the works of man 
are not circumstances taken at random, but are 
particular instances of a circumstance which ex- 
perience shows to have real connection with an in- 
telligent origin, the fact of conspiring to an end. 
The argument, therefore, is not one of mere anal- 
ogy. As mere analogy it has its weight, but it is 
more than analogy. It surpasses analogy exactly 
as induction surpasses it. It is an inductive argu- 
ment." ^ Being an inductive argument the conclu- 
sion rests on the same basis as most of the truths 
of natural science. How do we know that yonder 
apple on the tree at the roadside, when the breeze 
shall sever it from the bough, will fall to the 
ground ? It is an inference from what is known 
1 Three Essays on Religion, Theism, pp. 169, 170. 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 21 

to have occurred in similar instances to numberless 
material objects. What is the law of gravitation ? 
It is an induction from observed instances, count- 
less to be sure, yet constituting but a fraction of 
all the cases of which we unhesitatingly affirm it. 

The proof from evidences of design is often 

styled the argument from '' final causes." In this 

expression, the term final refers to the 

Final causes. .,„ -i * ^ ,t. • t t 

end tor which anything is made, as dis- 
tinguished from the efficient causes concerned in 
its origination. The end is the purpose in view, 
and is so called because its manifestation is last 
in the order of time. Thus, a man purposes to 
build a house. He collects the materials, brings 
them into the proper shape, raises the walls, and, 
in short, does everything needful to carry out his 
intention. The final cause is seen in the com- 
pleted dwelling for the habitation of his family. 
The final cause of a watch is to tell the time. The 
efficient causes are all the forces and agencies 
concerned in the making of it and in the regular 
movement of its parts. 

It is obvious that a thing may be an end, and, 
at the same time, a means to another end more 

remote. When a mechanic is making; a 

Chief and ^ . . ^ _ _.-.,? 

subordinate spokc, it IS the spokc which IS the im- 
mediate end in view. But the end of 
the spoke is to connect the rim of the wheel with 
the hub. The end of the w^heel is to revolve upon 



22 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

the axle ; and the wagon is the last end for which 
all its parts are fashioned and connected. There 
are subordinate ends and chief ends. We are not, 
therefore, to ignore the proof of design, even in 
cases where the chief end, the ultimate purpose, 
may be faintly or not at all perceived. 

It is sometimes said that "we cannot reason 

from the works of man to the works of nature." 

Why not? We are seeking to explain 

Works of . . . 

nature to be the Origin of the scene that is spread be- 
with works f ore US in the world in which we live. Is 
the cause intelligent ? We know from 
experience what are the characteristic signs of in- 
telligence. These signs are obvious in the world 
around us. Kant, in his comments on the argu- 
ment of design, concedes that it is impossible to 
explain organized beings, even to explain a blade 
of grass, by mechanical agencies — by natural laws 
acting without design presiding over them. Yet 
he says that possibly if we could fully understand 
nature we might dispense with this solution. This 
is to say no more than that the argument is not 
demonstrative. When Kant says that the idea of 
design is not "constitutive," or objective, but sub- 
jective, regulative of our perceptions, he fails to 
distinguish between two classes of hypotheses. 
In the case of one class they are only convenient 
means whereby the mind conceives of objects. 
They are suppositions which the study of nature 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 23 

may or may not verify. But in tlie case of the 
other class they are such as the objects inevitably 
suggest and bring home to us in an imperious way. 
Common sense perceives and asserts a correspon- 
dence of the objects to them. This is true of the 
adaptations recognized in the works of nature. 
Even if Kant is acknowledged to be right in hold- 
ing that belief in design is not necessary like be- 
lief in efficient causes, it does not follow that our 
conviction of the reality of design is not well- 
founded. We cannot demonstrate that the men 
about us have souls like our own ; yet we are as 
sure of it as if we could. 

We have thus far spoken of the design argument 
as analogical or inductive. But there are phi- 
losophers of deservedly high repute who 
tion an a i?n- look upou the principle of adaptation as 

oW principle ? , . .-^ -^ . . ■*■ ■'- 

intuitive or a priori^ and thus on a level 
with that of efficient causation. It cannot be de- 
nied that much can be said in favor of this doc- 
trine. Is it not just as natural to inquire for what 
purpose things are as to ask how they are pro- 
duced? Are we not as much impelled to ask 
'' What for " as ^' How," or '' Whence ? " That there 

is an orderly plan in the world is presup- 

Induct ion -i ' ' \ , * • ttj* 

impues de- posed lu luductive reasoning. Induction 

assumes the uniformity of nature. From 

a multitude of known instances of mortality we 

conclude that all men are mortal. The uniformity 



24 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

of nature involves the truth that nature is a sys- 
tem, or proceeds according to a plan. The postu- 
jRationaiity l^tc of scieucc is the rationality of nat- 
ure. Science, as Professor Huxley truly 
declares, is " the discovery of the rational order 
that pervades the universe." Without this pre- 
supposition of a rational order, scientific investi- 
gation would be a chase after a chimera. Nature, 
it is taken for granted, is the embodiment of 
thoughts. What is a book of astronomy but a 
transcript of the thoughts that are realized in the 
structure of the heavens ? All nature is but a book 
which science undertakes to decipher and read. 
When the student explores any province of nature, 
it is to find in it laws and adaptations. '' Our 
reason," says a recent writer, "- demands that there 
shall be a reasonableness in the constitution of 
things. This demand is a fact in our psychical 
nature as positive and irrepressible as an accept- 
ance of geometrical axioms and our rejection of 
whatever controverts such axioms." " There is in 
every earnest thinker a craving after a 

Craving af- n ^ i j i • 

ter a final final causc ; and this craving can no 
more be extinguished than our belief in 
objective reality. Nothing can persuade us that 
the universe is a farrago of nonsense. Our belief 
in what we call the evidence of our senses is less 
strong than our faith that in the orderly sequence 
of events there is a meaning which our minds could 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 25 

fathom were they only vast enough.'" In favor of 
the view that the belief in design is intuitive, and 
as such underlies all science, is the fact that it has 
guided, and proved an aid, in scientific discovery. 
As an instance, Harvey was led to find out the true 
system of the circulation of the blood by observ- 
ing that in the channels through which the blood 
flows, one set of valves open toward the heart, 
while another set open in the opposite direction. 

Because nature is a rational system, it is adapted 
to our cognitive faculties. This correspondence 
Nature pi'^^^^ ^^L^t the author of the mind is the 
ou?cognftive ^uthor of 'Hhc mind in nature." What 
faculties. being, says Cicero, that is " destitute 
of intellect and reason could have produced these 
things which not only had need of reason to cause 
them to be, but luliicli are such as can he under- 
stood only by the highest exertions of reason ? " ^ 

It is objected to the argument of design that 

what are styled adaptations are nothing but " the 

conditions of existence " of objects in 

tions not nature. These conditions being what 

mere " cou~ 

ditions of ex- thcv are, the various objects in which 

istence." . . 

design is supposed to be shown could 
not be different from what they are. For example, 
the bird is said to be adapted to the air through 
which it flies ; but the bird could not exist were 

^ John Fiske : '« The Idea of God," p. 138. 
2 De Nat. Deorum, II. 44. 



26 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

it not for the air in which its wings are moved. 
The objection is equivalent to an attempt to ex- 
plain the objects of nature by mechanical agencies 
and conditions. 

The objection has no force if the intuitive be- 
lief in final causes, or design, is admitted. But, 
apart from this consideration, " we find not merely 
the conditions of mere existence in the causes of 
effects produced, but the conditions of well-being, 
or adaptations to a highly artificial, elevated and 
refined existence and enjoyment." We find use so 
related to structure that the thought of design 
springs up unbidden. Take, for example, the 
human eye. It is an instrument employed by a 
rational being for a purpose, as he employs a tele- 
scope or a microscope. When we see how the 
eye is fitted to its use, we cannot resist the im- 
pression that it was intended for it. The idea of 
the organ we discern. As Whewell well puts it : 
" We have in our minds the idea of a final cause, 
and when we behold the eye, we see our idea ex- 
emplified. This idea then governed the construc- 
tion of the eye, be its mechanical causes, the oper- 
ative agencies that produced it, what they may." 
" Nothing," says an able writer, '' has been proved 
against final causes when organic effects 
the structure havc been reduced to their proximate 

of the heart. t j j i • n i • • t 

causes and to their determining condi- 
tions. It will be said, for instance, that it is not 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 27 

wonderful that the heart contracts, since it is a mus- 
cle, and contractility is an essential property of 
muscles. But is it not evident that if nature wished 
to make a heart that contracts, it behoved to em- 
ploy for this a contractile tissue, and would it not 
be very astonishing were it otherwise ? Have we 
thereby explained the wonderful structure of the 
heart and the skilful mechanism shown in it? 
Muscular contractility explains the contraction of 
the heart ; but this general property, which is 
common to all muscles, does not suffice to explain 
how or why the heart contracts in one way rather 
than another, why it has taken such a form and 
not such another. ' The peculiarity presented by 
the heart,' says M. CI. Bernard, ' is that the mus- 
cular fibres are arranged in it so as to form a sort 
of bag, within which is found the liquid blood. 
The contraction of these fibres causes a diminution 
of the size of this bag, and consequently an expul- 
sion, at least in part, of the liquid it contains. 
The arrangement of the valves gives to the expelled 
liquid the suitable direction.' Now the precise 
question which here occupies the thinker is, how 
it happens that nature, employing a contractile 
tissue, has given it the suitable structure and ar- 
rangement, and how it rendered it fit for the spe- 
cial and capital function of the circulation. The 
elementary properties of the tissues are the neces- 
sary conditions of which nature makes use to solve 



28 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

the problem, but they in no way explain how it 
has succeeded in solving it. Moreover, M. CI. 
Bernard (a learned physiologist) does not decline 
the inevitable comparison of the organism with the 
works of human industry, and even often recurs to 
it, as, for instance, when he says : ' the heart is 
essentially a living motor machine^ a force-pump, 
destined to send into all the organs a liquid to 
nourish them. ... At all degrees of the ani- 
mal scale, the heart fulfils this function of mechan- 
ical irrigation.' . . . ' We may compare,' he 
says, 'the histological elements to the materials 
man employs to raise a monument. . . . No 
doubt, in order that a house may exist, the stones 
composing it must have the property of gravita- 
tion ; but does this property explain how the stones 
form a house ? ' " ^ 

It might be said of a locomotive that — the boiler 
of iron, with its capacity to hold water, being pres- 
ent, and the water being in it, and fire beneath it, 
and a chimney above for the smoke to escape, and 
pipes through which steam can pass connected with 
the boiler, and wheels beneath on which the loco- 
motive can roll — it is sufficiently explained. But 
the combination of these parts, in their peculiar 
forms, and the relation of the whole to that which 
the locomotive does, are things which the fore- 
going statement altogether fails to account for. 
1 Janet^s '* Final Causes," pp. 129-131. 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 29 

It is through concrete examples that the most 
vivid impression is made of the design that is ex- 
hibited in nature. The human eye and ear fur- 
nish familiar and striking illustrations of a pre-con- 
ceived plan. 

The eye is protected by a lid which moves with 

great quickness, and is opened and shut at our 

pleasure. This delicate org'an is thus 

the structure defended from harm, as we take care to 

of the eye. . , . „ . . 

sliield optical instruments from injury. 
When the eye itself is examined, it is found to be 
almost spherical in form. It is discovered to be a 
darkened chamber — a camera obscura, having in 
the anterior part a bi-convex lens, which is named 
the crystalline lens, by which objects are focussed 
on the sensitive surface of a membrane called the 
retina. The eyeball, instead of being in a fixed 
position, has muscles attached to it, and can be 
turned in different directions, corresponding to the 
place of objects in the field of vision — as a photog- 
rapher's instrument can be turned upward or 
downward, to the right hand or the left. The 
requisite refraction of the rays of light, whereby 
they are brought to a focus and form an image on 
the retina, is effected by their passage through the 
cornea, the transparent coating of the eyeball, 
the aqueous humor, the crystalline lens, and the 
vitreous humor. The special use of the lens is in 
accommodating the eye to objects at different dis- 



30 



NATURAL THEOLOGY 



tances, since when it is removed by an operation 
for the cataract, the power of vision is not lost. 



AQUEOUS HUMOR 



IRIS 

I 9ORNEA 



CILIARY MUSCLE 
I 




OPTIC ne;rve 



HORIZONTAL SECTION OF THE LEFT EYE. 

The interior of the eye is darkened by the pig- 
mented choroid lining and by the iris, the contin- 
uation of it. In the centre of the iris is the pupil, 
an aperture for admitting the light ; and the iris 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 31 

itself, by means of two systems of muscular fibres, 
contracts or dilates the pupil, according as the 
light is more or less intense. The retina is so 
made that it is stimulated by the impact of light 
upon it, and there ensues an excitation of the 
fibres of the optic nerve. When waves of light of 
different lengths impinge on the retina, special 
effects are produced, giving in sensation the differ- 
ent colors. The apparatus for obtaining images 
Accommo- ^f objccts near and far is one of the 
eyf^to^di^s^ most curious features in the structure of 
tances. ^j^^ ^^^^ j^ Optical instruments, in or- 

der to obtain a distinct image, the distance be- 
tween the lens and the surface on which the im- 
age is to be formed has to be increased or lessened 
by moving either this surface or the lens for- 
ward or backward. In this way the photographer 
adjusts his instrument. The focal point of the 
lens is made to correspond with the plate. In 
the eye there is a peculiar mechanism by which a 
like result is effected. This mechanism causes the 
lens to become more convex when a near object is 
to be looked at. The lens is placed between two 
layers of a suspensory ligament, which is a pro- 
longation of the choroid, one of the three interior 
coats of the eye. With this ligament is connected 
the ciliary muscle, which, when it is lax, leaves the 
lens in the compressed state. But when a near 
object is to be viewed this muscle pulls upon the 



32 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

choroid, relaxes the ligament, and the lens forth- 
with bulges out. Here is a self-adjusting appara- 
tus by which the eye accommodates itself to the 
perception of things not far off. "Without it the 
focus would be behind the retina, and no image 
would be formed upon it. In the normal eye of a 
person thirty years old, a distinct image can be 
formed of an object not nearer than five inches 
from the organ of vision. 

"Without going farther in this description, it is 
difficult to avoid the impression that there is de- 
sign in the characteristics which have been ad- 
verted to, such as the arrangement for turning the 
eye in different directions, and for seeing distinctly 
objects near as well as remote ; the method of 
darkening the interior and of regulating the ad- 
mission of light ; the peculiar functions of the 
retina and its relation to the optic nerve. 

The eye has been criticised as in some particu- 
lars defective, when considered as an optical in- 
strument. If it were defective, it must 
fects in the be remembered that a defective instru- 
ment does not disprove design in its 
maker, whatever reflection it may be thought to 
cast on the perfection of his skill. But Helm- 
holtz, one of the critics of this class, himself says : 
" The adaptation of the eye to its function is 
therefore most complete, and is seen in the very 
limits which are set to its defects. Here, the re- 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 33 

suit which may be reached under the working of 
the Darwinian law of inheritance, coincides with 
wiiat the wisest Wisdom may have devised before- 
hand."^ 

The study of the variations in the structure of 
the eye to suit the habits and modes of different 
Variations auimals offers fresh illustrations of de- 
amon^an^i- sigu. For instauce, the shape of the 
^^^^' pupil is adapted alike to animals which 

require a long vertical range of vision and to those 
to whom a long horizontal range is necessary. 

The proofs of design in the structure of the ear 

are scarcely less wonderful than those which are 

The struct- ^^^^ ^^ the cyc. The auricle, or external 

ureof theear. ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ adjacent auditory canal are 

so shaped as to gather the vibrations of air, and 
direct them upon the membrane of the tympanum, 
or drum. In some animals, it may be here ob- 
served, the auricle has the form of a trumpet, and 
is turned by muscles in various directions. The 
drum has a muscle attached to it, the tensor tym- 
panic which pulls it inward, making it more 
tense. AVhen the muscle is relaxed, it returns to 
equilibrium by its own elasticity. Thus there is 
provided the means of receiving and transmitting 
sounds of different pitch. The vibrations of the 
air are carried inward to the tympanum or internal 
ear by the drum, and by a chain of three little 

1 Quoted by Martineau, «' A Study of Religion," I., 365. 
8 



34 



NATURAL THEOLOGY 



bones, the ossicles, stretching across the cavity of 
the drum and forming together a lever by which 
the vibrations are diminished in extent, but in- 



CAVITY OF THE TYMPANUM 



SEMI-CIRCULAR CANALS 




EXTERNAL/ 
AUDITORY C^NAL / 



hammef( / 

MEMB. TYMP. 



ANVIL 



stirrOp 



j eustaci^. tube 

COCHLEA 



VERTICAL SECTION OF THE AUDITORY APPARATUS. 



creased in force. The Eustachian tube forms a 
connection between the cavity of the tympanum 
and the pharynx. Thereby an undue pressure of 
the atmosphere upon the tympanum from without 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 35 

may be met by a counter-pressure of air from 
within. The internal ear, or labyrinth, is partly 
bony and partly membranous. It is filled with 
water, and over its lining membrane are distrib- 
uted the terminal fibres of the auditory nerve, 
whose excitations precede the sensations of sound. 
The most highly specialized portion of the laby- 
rinth is the cochlea — so called from its resemblance 
to a snail-shell. At a certain place within the 
cochlea is the wonderful organ named the " Corti." 
This is supposed to contain three thousand pairs 
of rods or stiff cells, and between ten thousand and 
4fteen thousand hair-cells. The membrane which 
carries the Corti receives the vibrations. By it 
sounds are differentiated in kind and degree. It 
is thought by Helmholtz and Henan that the fibres 
of this membrane, like the strings of the piano, re- 
spond with different notes to different vibrations. 
"Within the ears of men," says Tyndall, ''and 
without their knowledge or contrivance, this lute 
of three thousand strings has existed for ages, ac- 
cepting the music of the outer world, and render- 
ing it fit for reception by the brain. Each musical 
tremor which falls upon this organ, selects from 
its tensioned fibres the one appropriate to its own 
pitch, and throws that fibre with unisonant vibra- 
tion. And thus, no matter how complicated the mo- 
tion of the external air may be, those microscopic 
strings can analyze it and reveal the constituents 



36 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

of which it is compound." ^ A somewhat differ- 
ent theory as to the mode of action of the Corti is 
held by Rutherford and some other physiologists. 
They suppose that the cells of the Corti are all 
impressed by every vibration, and that correspond- 
ing nerve-impulses occur, ''just as in a telephone 
the sound-vibrations are translated by the iron 
plate and magnet into electrical movements which 
correspond to those of the sound received." 
Physiologists find in instruments which are the 
products of the most delicate ingenuity, parallels 
to the apparatus by which sounds are made audi- 
ble. In the human ear, and occupying very little 
space, we find a mechanism infinitely surpassing in 
its effects the capacity of all musical instruments 
collectively taken. Wordsworth, in his ode on the 
" Power of Sound," has set forth the wonder and 
mystery of the organ of hearing and the boundless 
range of its capacity. By its means there are con- 
veyed to the soul within the shouts of the joyous 
and exulting, shrieks of the suffering, and 

" Warbled air, 
Whose piercing sweetness can unloose 
The chains of frenzy, or entice a smile 
Into the ambush of despair ; 
Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle, 
And requiems answered by the pulse that beats 
Devoutly, in life's last retreats." 

* ''Sound, a Course of Eight Lectures," etc., p. 324. 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 37 

It is an argument in Natural Theology which 
the Sacred Writer utters when he exclaims (Ps. 
94 : 91) : " He that planted the ear, shall He not 
hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not 
see ? " Can we believe that the Power to which 
the ear and the eye owe their being is itself not 
capable of seeing and hearing ? 

It is sometimes thought that the argument of 
design is invalidated by the doctrine of Evolution. 
Evolution This impression is quite erroneous. Ev- 
and design, q^^j^jq^^ although the word may begin 
with a capital letter, is not a person, nor is it an 
entity of any sort. It denotes, not a cause, but 
only a method. 

Evolution as a doctrine respecting nature stands 
in contrast with the idea of special acts of creation, 
Meaning of immediate interpositions of power. As 
evolution. ^ theory in zoology, it signifies that what 
is true of the individuals of a species, is equally 
true of species themselves in relation to one an- 
other. Their connection is genetic. They arise 
Different ^J descent, rather than by particular 
luUonaiVt^e- Creative acts. One class of evolutionists 
^^^* hold that the origin of each particular 

species is per saltum; that is, that its first progeni- 
tors, with all their distinguishing characteristics, 
are generated at once from a preceding species ; 
new sorts of animal life, once originated, having 



38 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

the power to perpetuate themselves. Darwin's 
view, on the contrary, is that existing varieties 
"Natural Se- ^^ structure among animals result from 

lection." yery slow and gradual variations. There 
is a tendency to slight variations, and there is 
a force of heredity by which variations of form, 
when they once arise, are transmitted. Those 
particular variations which give to an animal an 
advantage in procuring his food and in self-defence 
by degrees increase, or are built up, through the 
mating of animals possessed of them. By a mys- 
terious principle of '^ correlation," the remaining 
parts of the animal structures so modify them- 
selves as to harmonize with the particular part thus 
altered. In this way, it is conceived, the different 
types and kinds of animal life, in the course of long 
periods of time, derive their existence. They are all 
— so Darwin stated in his earliest work on the sub- 
ject — descended from a few primitive forms. The 
method by which certain offspring are formed and 
enabled to survive, when others perish, is termed 
Natural Selection. By Herbert Spencer this meth- 
od of Nature is termed " the survival of the fittest." 

It is plain that, if the Darwinian theory be ac- 
cepted, it does not avail in the least to exclude 
Design im- the evldeuccs of design. The primitive 
Da^r^vi ni^an forms of animal life, which contain in 
theory. them potentially all the forms that are 

to spring from them, require to be accounted for. 



THE AHOTTMENT 0:B' DESIGN 39 

No reasonable explanation can be given of them 
except that they are the product of a preconceived 
purpose. The problem of origin is merely shifted 
back. Moreover, we have to take account of the 
combined action of heredity and of that tendency 
to depart from it which is called variation. When 
we see the results that are wrought out by these 
agencies, in conjunction with that unexplained 
agency which is styled correlation, we are almost 
irresistibly impressed with the conviction that they 
are the instruments of plan and foresight. They 
are instruments of conscious wisdom and power, 
or modes in which these attributes are exerted and 
manifested. The very term '^ Natural Selection " 
indicates as much, since selection is the function of 
mind and will. The attempt to escape this implied 
adaptation by substituting the phrase " survival of 
the fittest " costs an effort, and even then really 
fails of success. The '' fittest " is that which has 
been fitted with success to the end in view. 

It is true that certain naturalists assume a bound- 
less, hap-hazard variation as providing the mate- 
rials which are furnished for the exercise 

The out- _ _ . 

come proves oi natural Selection. They assume num- 

design. , "^ , . 

berless abortive forms of animal life 
which disappear, leaving only a limited number of 
survivors. But who does not see that what is 
called " accident " can have no place in a sphere 
where it is confessed on all hands that necessity 



40 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

reigns ? At one end of tlie line there is a certain 
constitution of things, certain laws and tendencies. 
At the other there is the orderly system, the object 
of science. Be the intermediate steps what they 
may ; grant that there is an intermediate interval 
of chaos and confusion, adaptation is proved. But 
this hypothesis of a '' chance-variation " is not veri- 
fied by scientific observation. The chances are in- 
finite against the likelihood of the building up of 
the species of animal life on such a basis. There 
are laws of variation. Limitations are set around 
it. We repeat, however, that, w^hatever speculations 
may be advanced on these points, it is undeniable 
that the animal kingdom, as we now behold it, is 
the effect of a combination of causes or antece- 
dents tending to this result, and to this result 
alone. The inference of design, operative from the 
beginning, is therefore legitimate. 

But there is a broader form of evolutionary doc- 
trine which may be considered here. It has not 
been shown from observation or experi- 

TtiG broad- 

est theory of mcut that life cau be produced from that 

evolution. , , 

which is lifeless. Nevertheless there are 
those who hold that there is no break at this point 
in the course of development. There is an opinion 
that all things spring out of a primitive w^orld of 
atoms, the ultimate constituents of matter, and 
that through the motions and combinations of 
atoms, in incalculable periods of time, with no in- 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 41 

tervention from without, all things have come to be. 

This was an ancient opinion. It is set forth by 

the Roman poet, Lucretius, a disciple of 

Lucretius. . l^ , 

the Epicurean school. He supposes that 
as a consequence of the commotion and concussion 
of atoms, after an almost endless series of unstable 
results, a combination was reached that was capa- 
ble of abiding. This theory is thus expressed : 

** For never, doubtless, by the thought of each, 
Or mutual compact, could elements distinct 
First harmonize, then move in ways defined. 
But ever changing, ever changed, and vext 
From earliest time, through ages infinite, 
With ceaseless repercussion, every mode 
Of motion, magnitude and shape essayed : 
At length together they assumed the form 
Of things created."^ 

The same theory has been broached, Avith some 

modifications, by certain modern writers. The 

Lucretian theory attributes the world to 

"Chance." 

'' chance." We use this w^ord to denote 
an occurrence, or an object, the particular cause of 
which is not detected, and which bears in it no 
evident marks of forethought. We apply the word, 
for example, to the result of a throw^ of dice. I drop 
a handful of coins on the floor. They fly in differ- 
ent directions, and they fly in different directions, 
we say, as " chance " directs. On the theory which 

^ De Rerum Natura, I., 1021-1028. 



42 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

we are considering the worid is accounted for as the 
final result of what is equivalent to an almost in- 
finite succession of throws of dice. This can not be 
said to be literally impossible, as it is not literally 
impossible that a font of types thrown into the air 
should come down in the form of Homer's Iliad. 
It is, however, so unlikely an occurrence as to be 
next to impossible. Imagine time to be 
■^suppose^^^" given for the repetition of the experi- 
ment billions of times — the unlikelihood 
of the issue is not perceptibly diminished. Cicero, 
commenting on this theory of the Epicureans, 
after speaking of the vast orderly system of things 
beheld above us and around us, exclaims : " Is it 
possible for any man to behold these things, and 
yet imagine that certain solid and individual bodies 
move by their natural force and gravitation and 
that a world so beautifully adorned was made by 
their fortuitous concourse ? He who believes this 
may as well believe that if a great quantity of the 
one-and-twenty letters " — the number of the letters 
in the Roman alphabet — '^ composed of gold or of 
any other matter, were thrown upon the ground 
they would fall into such order as legibly to form 
the Annals of Ennius? ... If a concourse 
of atoms can make a world, why not a porch, 
a temple, a house, a city, which are works of 
less labor and difficulty ? " ' But assume that the 

^DeNat. Deorum, II., 37. 



THE ABGUMENT OF DESIGN 43 

existing world was once a chaos of atoms. Why 
did all the prior combinations of atoms fail ? Why 
did the numberless forms of motion and associ- 
ation prove unstable ? Manifestly because the 
multitudinous atoms were ctdapted exclusively to 
that final form of combination in which order and 
stability are united. We have still another in- 
stance of the carrying back of design ; but from 
design there is no escape. 

The students of physical science at the present 
day as a class are far from holding to this precise 
theory of the origin of things. Yet physical science 
rests upon the hypothesis of the atomic constitu- 
tion of matter. We are carried back in physical 
investigation to a world of indivisible particles 
which are combined into molecules. What beneath 
the world of atoms there may be, we cannot tell. 
We can explore no farther. But we say again that 
the world of atoms bears witness to design as truly 
and in the same degree as the whole structure 
of things that spring from it. Sir John Her- 
schel goes so far as to say that the atoms, the 
primitive elements of which material nature is com- 
posed, have all the appearance of being ^' manufac- 
tured articles." " The more purely a mechanist 
the speculator is," says Professor Huxley, " the 
more firmly does he assume primordial molecular 
arrangement, of which all the phenomena of the 
universe are consequences, the more completely is 



44 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

lie thereby at tlie mercy of the teleologist, who 
can always defy him to prove that this primordial 
molecular arrangement was not intended to evolve 
the phenomena of the universe." ' But the teleol- 
ogist can go farther than to defend himself against 
his assailant ; he can overthrow him by a simple 
appeal to the competent, unperverted judgment of 
mankind, or the voice of common sense, which 
recognizes and affirms design. 

"We have spoken of the eye as elaborated in the 

dark, and likewise of the ear as formed where the 

air has no access. On the o;rounds of 

Evolution . . . 

of the eye and evolutionary theory it IS obiected that 

the ear pre- . , , , 

supposes de- this IS not true of the rudimental eye 

sign. / 

and ear. We are told that the begin- 
nings of the eye are produced by the impact of 
rays of light upon protoplasm. By protoplasm is 
meant the lowest form of living matter which is 
not differentiated into organs. Because it is liv- 
ing, although it can be analyzed chemically and 
its component inorganic elements ascertained, the 
analysis kills it. Now it is said that the contact 
of light with the jelly-like substance called proto- 
plasm excites in it a feeling which centres in a 
certain spot, that there differentiation begins and 
the faint starting-point of the eye appears. The 
impact of air elsewhere on the protoplastic mass 
produces the '' rudimentary point " of the organ of 

^ " Critiques," p. 347. 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGJST 45 

hearing. New differentiations, each in its own 
line, follow under like conditions. They are 
transmitted by the law of heredity. At last the 
perfected organs, as they are found in man, ap- 
pear. If these statements could be verified as 
facts of natural history, they would be powerless 
to disprove design. It is obvious that the rudi- 
ments of the optical and the auditory nerves could 
not arise unless there were a response, and a re- 
sponse in these several forms, within the mass of 
protoplasm, to the impact of the light and the air. 
It is absurd to say that the waves of light create 
the eye, or that the undulations of the air create 
the ear. The most that the light and the air can 
be imagined to do is to evoke activities that slum- 
ber in the protoplasm. The germinant agencies 
are there, as truly as in the plant kingdom the life, 
and the form which the life will take, are in the 
germs that are developed under the influence of 
the sunshine and the rain. 

If evolutionary doctrines have raised difficulties 
in Natural Theology they have given to the argu- 
ment of design a more impressive force. 

argumTn^ It remains to be proved that a new in- 
strengthened i P T • "ITT 

by Evolution- crcmcut oi diviue energy, introduced 
into the ordinary flow of development, 
is not to be assumed at certain points in its prog- 
ress ; for example, in the bringing of life into the 
realm of inorganic substances, and in the origin 



46 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

of man, at least as regards his rational powers. 
But however this may be, natural science at the 
present day holds up to view the spectacle of a 
steady, orderly succession, rising, step after step, 
until at the summit of the series we arrive at man. 
The system culminates in him. Nature is seen to 
be pointing upward to him, and working toward 
him. The idea of man is the preconception at the 
basis of the whole movement. 

It is in living organisms that the marks of fore- 
thought and selection strike the beholder with 
Design ^^st forcc. In an organism every part 
in^imng^or- ^^ both uicaus and end. The very term 
gamsms. u p^^,^ " j^^ hardly proper in reference to 
a system which is animated by a single life. The 
nature of an organism, and, at the same time, the 
highest example, may be seen in the human body. 
Its members are " members one of another." Thus, 
the skin which covers it is indispensable to its life 
and health, and is ever conducing to this end. Yet 
the organism as a whole is perpetually at work in 
weaving this covering for itself. Let a burn de- 
stroy a part of it, and the entire system instantly 
sets to work to repair the loss. Unless the extent 
of the loss is excessive it accomplishes the task. 
"When the task is too great, it dies in the attempt. 
The impression of design, made by the human or- 
ganism as a whole, is more and more deepened as 
we study its various organs, one by one. "We have 



THE ARGUAfEXT OF DESIGN 47 

already considered the structure of the eve and of 
the ear as they are related to their respective func- 
tions. The study of the apparatus of digestion, 
or of respiration, or of circulation, when the stu- 
dent does not try to speculate himself out of the 
natural impression which these wonderful arrange- 
ments make upon the mind, inspires anew the con- 
viction that they were planned beforehand. 

The study of comparative anatomy constantly 
reveals the design which is presupj^osed in the 
D e s i <^ n adaptations of animals to their en\dron- 
cSSparative ^^^iit. Their instruments of motion, 
anatomy. their instruments for procuring food, 
their w^eapons for attack and defence, their organs 
for producing and feeding their young, are varied 
in striking and evidently ingenious ways to suit 
the element in which they live. If it be said that 
all these multiform variations of structure are them- 
selves the effect of circumstances, the answer, as 
before, is, that unless a prior susceptibiKty and ca- 
pacity of being thus shaped and directed inhered 
in the matter, be its form what it may, on which 
environment is brought to bear, the phenomena 
in question could never arise. The proof of de- 
sign remains in its full strength. 

The beauty which is spread through nature is a 
manifestation of design. The tints of the flowers 
and the bright, variegated plumage of the birds 
display an artistic hand. Beyond what is requis- 



48 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

ite for what may be termed practical necessaries 
and uses, there are provisions for securing charms 

Beauty and ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ color. Who cau look at that 
na™e^pTOve i^i^^cle of dclicatc art, an orchid blos- 
ciesign. som, and not be struck with the feeling 

that contrivance and matchless taste are concerned 
in its origin? The same inference follows from 
the sublime in nature. If the groined arch of the 
cathedral is uplifting, much more the majestic 
dome of the sky. It does not avail to say that 
these impressions of the beautiful and sublime are 
subjective, that they are dependent on the struct- 
ure of our faculties. Hold what theory respecting 
beauty one may, it remains true that there is a 
wonderful adaptation in the external world to our 
aesthetic nature. 

Before illustrating further the argument of de- 
sign, we choose this place to notice a not unfre- 

objection qneut objection which is made against it. 
erat?o*nlTf It is Said that in the operations of in- 
thfg^owth^f stinct in the lower animals, and even in 
plants. ^^ plant kingdom, we have examples 

which are quite analogous to the effects of selection 
and combination, and yet are obviously not the 
fruit of design. The flight of migratory birds by 
straight pathways from one region to another, the 
architecture shown in the habitation which the 
beaver constructs for itself, the skill observed in 
the doings of a swarm of bees, are only a few 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 49 

among instances innumerable where instinct imi- 
tates and may often surpass the achievements of 
human contrivance. The clusters of fruit upon a 
grapevine, and fair blossoms, like the rose, may 
remind us that the unconscious life of the plant 
generates products which the art of man cannot 
rival. Why not, then, attribute all things that are 
taken to indicate design in the world to uncon- 
scious, unreflecting agency, operating after the 
manner of plant life or animal instinct ? The an- 
swer to this question should readily suggest itself. 
Just for the reason that the products of instinct 
spring from an impulse in the animal, which in- 
volves in it no preconception, we are driven to 
presuppose a designing mind that planted the in- 
stinct and guides it to its goal. "Without this sup- 
position, we have a cause that is plainly not com- 
mensurate with its effect. We have works that 
bear on them the characteristic mark of reason 
where reason is absent from the cause. The same 
answer is to be rendered to the suggestion that the 
wonders of the vegetable kingdom are explained 
when they are referred exclusively to causes void 
of consciousness and will. 

There is no one of the sciences which does not 
afford striking illustrations of design.^ In mathe- 

^ This topic is treated by Porter in his *' Human Intellect," 
p. 607. There are interesting remarks on the subject in Flint's 
^•Theism," p. 867 seq. 
4 



50 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

matics many formulas have been devised, and prob- 
lems proposed and solved which have been after- 
wards found to hold 2food — to have been 

The Sci- • • i t • ii • • 

ences iiius- anticipated — m the constitution of nat- 

trate design. ^ . . 

ure. Astronomy, m the relations and 
motions of the heavenly bodies, has irresistibly 
impelled the greatest masters in this branch of 
science, to discern the power and wisdom of God 
in the starry system. Kepler could not resist the 
conviction that in discovering the astronomic laws 
he was rethinking the thoughts of God. The 
laws of modern chemistry bear the same testimony 
to the presence and agency of a Supreme Intelli- 
gence. The list of adaptations in water alone, 
through its abundance, the adjustments of its 
specific gravity, its power of being converted into 
vapor, condensed into rain, and changed into 
steam, its relations to heat and cold, its agency as 
an almost universal solvent, its mechanical capac- 
ities by which it can corrode the rocks and circu- 
late in the rose-leaf and through the lungs of man 
— this list fornis of itself an instructive chapter.^ 
Geology has unfolded a plan and order of develop- 
ment in the progress of the earth itself and of the 
successive orders of its inhabitants up to man. 
Geography, as taught by its most eminent teachers, 
as Karl Eitter, has pointed out in the physical feat- 

1 See Professor J. P. Cooke's *' Religion and Chemistry," 
Lecture V. (New York, 1864). 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 51 

ures of the globe, and in its relation to the races 
that have dwelt upon the different portions of it, 
impressive indications of a divine plan for the rise 
and spread of civilization. The history of man- 
kind displays a guiding and overruling providence 
which it would seem almost impossible for an at- 
tentive student to fail to discern. 

The provisions incorporated in nature, which 
have relation to man as a social being, lead the 
-^ . . mind by an almost irresistible attraction 
f^^r^human *^ *^^ recognition of a divine wisdom as 
society. ^jj^ only reasonable explanation of their 
origin. "We might refer to language, and to the 
physical apparatus and mental faculties wiiich 
give rise to its beginnings and growth. By in- 
scrutable agencies in Nature the sexes are in a 
certain proportion to one another, a proportion 
which varies within narrow limits. The sexes are 
pretty nearly equal in number. Foundations are 
laid in Nature for the marriage relation, 
and thus for the origination of the 
family. The impression of wonder which is 
made by a new-born child, by its physical structure 
and its instincts and aptitudes, falls little short of 
that produced by a miracle. Through the institu- 
tion of the family a basis is provided for a larger 
communitv, the state. The family is 

The state. " 

fitted to be a school for discipline in 
obedience, loyalty, and self-sacrifice for the sake 



52 NATVUAL THEOLOGY 

of others. It is a school to qualify the members 
of the household for citizenship. Through the 
family and the state conceptions are awakened 
and feelings are nurtured which appear designed 
to serve as an education for a society of wider 
compass, even for a kingdom of which 
God is the Father and Sovereign. 
Looking at these relations in which man is 
placed, we see in them, regarded by themselves, 
the clearest evidences of design. They bring God 
before us. This effect is deepened when we dis- 
cern the way in which they prepare human beings 
for his service. 

We have arrived at the conclusion that the 
world is an effect of divine power, the product of 
God's intelligent, voluntary agency. What is the 
Extent of ©^tcut of the powcr thus revealed ? Are 
Divine power. ^^ justified in pronouncing him, in strict 
speech, almighty ? It is urged that, however vast 
is the power required for the effects of which we 
are made aware by the wide-reaching evidences of 
design, we are only authorized to assume an 
amount of power adequate to obtain the actual 
result. As the world is finite, it is said that only 
a finite measure of power is demanded to account 
for it. But it is manifestly fallacious to conclude 
that the power of God is exhausted by the outlay 
of it in Nature. Even as regards human beings 
to whom in a qualified sense we ascribe creative 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESIGN 53 

power, we do not conceive of their resources as 
entirely expended in the works which they actu- 
ally produce. The chisel of Michael Angelo did 
not do everything that it was capable of doing. 
It is a characteristic of the writings of Shakespere 
that they evidently spring from a genius that is 
well-nigh inexhaustible. Again, it must be re- 
membered that the actual constitution of the world 
is a result of choice. We are not to imagine that 
no other or different world was possible to the Di- 
vine Being. It is a case where there was an exer- 
cise of will and preference among different possibil- 
ities. The power that is implied in the existence 
of the actual world, to one who contemplates its in- 
definite vastness and the inconceivable variety of 
its constituent parts, is felt to be immeasurable. 
It is not difficult to believe that it is literally 
without limit. But the premises in strict logic do 
not compel to this conclusion. Our conviction on 
this point rests on other grounds. What has just 
been remarked respecting the omnipotence of God 
is applicable also to the question of His omni- 
science. 

The evidence for the unity of God which has 
already been adduced is corroborated by the argu- 
The unity ^^^^^ ^f design. If Dualism, the as- 
of God. sumption of two eternal powers dividing 
between them the work of creation, ever had any 
plausible support, that support has vanished 



54 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

tlirougli the progress of science. Nature not only 
exhibits design ; it is comprehended in one vast 
network of design. To the anatomist, the most 
ungainly and repulsive animals are links in a zo- 
ological system and essential to its symmetry. 
The animal creation requires the vegetable as an 
indispensable condition of its being, and both 
these kingdoms presuppose and involye the entire 
realm of things below them. Optical discoveries 
prove that the distant suns and constellations are 
homogeneous with the earth. God is known to be 
one, because Nature is one. 

Convincing as the argument of design must 
be admitted to be, the question may be raised 
whether it contains the proof that Nature is cre- 
ated outright, or absolutely from noth- 

Does de- . » i t • • p • 

sign prove lug. Are we warranted m interring 
more than that the raw material, so to 
speak, of material Nature has been moulded and 
shaped by divine power and wisdom ? May not 
matter itself be co-eternal with the divine Being ? 
In reply to this question it is to be remarked that 
the properties of matter are inseparable from mat- 
ter itself. Whatever matter may be, its properties 
belong to its very being. Now it is in these prop- 
erties that there lies the capacity of being moulded 
and shaped into the forms that bespeak intelli- 
gence. This capacity is equivalent to an adapted- 
ness which implies design. Therefore matter it- 



THE ARGUMENT OF DESlGig- 55 

self must be referred to God as the Creator. It 
must be borne in mind tliat God is not to be con- 
ceived of as working upon Nature from without. 
He is immanent in Nature. His power is exerted 
from within. Man's works are upon Nature from 
without. He takes existing materials and laws, 
and bends them, as far as it is possible, to his uses. 
A like conception of God in relation to Nature is 
not Theism, but Deism. The theistic conception 
is of a God who, while he is transcendent and per- 
sonal, dwells in Nature and makes himself mani- 
fest in its laws and phenomena. This conception 
carries in it the conception of him as a creator, 
not as a manufacturer. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

THE MOEAL AKGUMENT 

The moral argument for Theism is derived from 
the consideration of the free and responsible nat- 
ure of man. That we are endowed with such a 
nature is verified by the consciousness and com- 
mon sense of mankind. 

By the freedom of the will we mean that in the 

act of choice the will is exempt from any constraint, 

whether from without or within. The 

TI16 fr66~ 

dom of the statcs of mind that precede the voluntary 
act do not necessitate it. There is an 
alternative which is open to selection. The mind 
in the act of choice is not shut up to the prefer- 
ence which it actually exercises. It is an elective 
preference. In this meaning of the terms there 
is a self-determination. Here is a radical distinc- 
tion between the mind, as far as this mode of its 
activity is concerned, and all motion and change 
in the material sphere. In nature without, there 
is nothing analogous to self-motion. It is true 
that in the case of choice there are motives, 
otherwise there would be nothing to choose. But 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 57 

the motives do not coerce. The rival object might 
have been chosen. The competing course might 
have been preferred. 

The freedom of the will is a fact of conscious- 
ness. When we put forth an act of choice, we 
Evidence know that we are possessed of this 
dom^of^the liberty. Looking back upon the act 
^^^* after it was performed, we know that 

we could have chosen otherwise. The existence 
of such a liberty of will is presupposed in the 
language and common conduct of mankind. It is 
assumed in the laws, and institutions, and all the 
intercourse of society. It is implied in self-ap- 
proval and self-reproach, and in the praise and 
blame which men attach to one another. 

It is sometimes maintained that the direction 
of the will in the act of choice is really the effect 
of causal antecedents, which are thought 
cult causes of to be absent merely because they are 
occult and unperceived. This allegation 
is a bare assertion which there is no adequate 
evidence to sustain. It brands as illusive the tes- 
timony of consciousness, and contradicts our self- 
judgments as well as our judgments of one an- 
other. 

It is contended, also, by necessarians that the 
doctrine of the liberty of the will is inconsistent 
with the maxim that nothing can occur without a 
cause. But in the case of a choice, the will is it- 



58 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

self the cause. It is not an instance of an occur- 
rence without an exertion of power involved in 
it. There is, to be sure, a qualification 

Relation of « . i ... « -, . ,^-, 

fi-eedom to oi the maxim just reierred to. There is 

causation. -. , ^ p i • • i 

no such control oi causation as exists 
in the material world and in relation to mental 
activities which are involuntary. The will is not 
confined to one direction in its action. In this 
particular, it is not subject to the constraining ac- 
tion of the law of cause and effect. Herein its lib- 
erty consists. This is the meaning of it. 

It is objected, again, that the doctrine of the 
freedom of the will is incompatible with that uni- 
formity which, it is affirmed, is observed 
uniiormify^of lu mcu's choices. It is Said that, know- 
ing their mental tendencies and their 
circumstances, we can predict in a great many 
cases what their voluntary action will be. It is 
argued that if we could completely discern " the 
springs of action," we should probably be able to 
foretell choices as correctly as eclipses are foretold 
by astronomers. In affirmations of this kind it is 
overlooked that multitudes of volitions are put 
forth simply to carry out underlying choices 
which are freely originated, and which abide and 
are silently active in the mind. Understanding 
that your friend has resolved to take a walk to the 
post-office, you can of course foresee that he will 
put forth the numerous voluntary acts which are 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 59 

involyed in the execution of tlie purpose. This 
simple illustration will serve to explain the opera- 
tion of habit in the countless instances when habit 
is voluntary in its origin, and not only in its ori- 
gin but also in its continuance. If one has " made 
up his mind " to a given course of conduct, pro- 
vided he does not reverse this generic purpose, it 
is quite possible to predict a host of volitions 
which he will put forth in consequence. It is a 
mistake to conclude from uniformity in the action 
of a person's will under given circumstances, that 
the will is not free in the sense we have defined. 
If your friend chooses a direct instead of a cir- 
cuitous path to the post-office, it does not prove 
that he could not have chosen to take the longer 
way. The will is not the less free in its action be- 
cause that action, under a certain set of circum- 
stances, is constant. Nay, if uniformity in volun- 
tary action had no exceptions, if it were always 
true that the will in the same combination of cir- 
cumstances, internal and external, would always 
choose in the same way, the doctrine of necessity 
would not thereby be established. 

These remarks suggest the answer to an argu- 
ment against freedom which is sometimes deduced 
from statistics of crime or of other social events 
and characteristics. That a community should 
have certain traits at a given time, and that an 
approximative calculation should be possible as to 



60 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

the percentage of incidents of one sort or another 
that will occur in it, does not disprove the liberty 
of the will. The persistency of qualities of char- 
acter is quite compatible with their voluntariness. 
But, now and then, a shock will be given to statis- 
tical prediction. The Wesleyan reformation in 
England produced a remarkable diminution of 
crime and vice, and of the poverty consequent 
upon them. A great moral revolution comes in to 
overthrow arithmetical prophecies. 

But while man is free, he is equally conscious of 
being subject to a law, not of his own making. It 
is a law written on the heart. In par- 
subjection to ticular decisions as to where the path of 

moral law. t ■ t ^ i» t t • 

duty lies we may be contused and mis- 
led by ignorance and bias, but the feeling of obliga- 
tion to do that which is felt to be right is impera- 
tive. This imperative character — the feeling that 
" I ought," that " I must " whether I desire it or 
not, the alternative being disobedience to a holy 
voice heard in the sanctuary of the soul — this it is 
that stamps upon conscience its unique quality. 
There are those who would account for the pecu- 
liarity of the sense of obligation by mak- 
not a form of iug it the cffcct of a perception of conse- 

self-love. . T . 1 • ji 

quences in happiness or unhappmess, the 
element of right as something distinct not exist- 
ing. It being once learned that one sort of con- 
duct brings after it suffering, flowing, in part at 



TBE MORAL ARGUMENT 61 

least, from the disfavor of others, and that another 
sort of conduct has the opposite result, men feel 
impelled in the one direction, and deterred from 
the other. This feeling of attraction and repug- 
nance is conceived to be transmitted by descent in 
the form of an inner impulsion, while its origin 
is forgotten. This mode of explaining the feel- 
ings of conscience fails to account for the dis- 
tinguishing elements in our moral experience. 
Why am I hound to seek for happiness ? If I am 
not so bound, how account for the conviction that 
I am ? If this conviction is illusive, then on the 
discovery of the fact the feeling of obligation van- 
ishes. Righteousness is identified with prudence 
— a prudence that has no authoritative basis. 
Duty is resolved into expediency. The sense of 
baseness differs radically from the sense of being 
in a low condition without moral fault. Remorse 
is utterly distinct from mere regret. The sense of 
shame on account of an unworthy action is incap- 
able of being confounded with any feeling of hu- 
miliation that is void of this essential ingredient. 
No theory of the genesis of conscience is admis- 
sible which destroys the object that it would ana- 
lyze and trace to its origin. To surrender or to al- 
low to be weakened, in deference to any speculation, 
the healthy sense of obligation and responsibility 
is more than an intellectual mistake : it is immoral. 
It carries with it a degradation of character. 



62 NATTinAL THEOLOGY 

Through the operations of conscience we discern 
that we are subject to a righteous lawgiver who 
Conscious- rcwards and punishes. We are brought 
rig\^teVus i^to coutact with the moral attributes of 
lawgiver. ^j^^ Being in whom we live and move. 
There is within us an immediate, undeniable tes- 
timony to his holiness and righteousness. 

Moreover, as the moral nature of man is de- 
veloped and enlightened, we arrive at the clear 
Th b 1 perception that benevolence is the sub- 
oience of God stance of the law which conscience im- 

mierred. 

poses upon us. The character of the 
Creator and Kuler is made known as benevolent, 
as well as holy and righteous. He is thus recog- 
nized as the impersonation of Holy Love. 

Substantially the same argument is put in a dif- 
ferent form by Thomas Erskine, of Linlathen, who 
writes thus : " When I attentively consider what is 
going on in my conscience, the chief thing forced 
on my notice is, that I find myself face to face with a 
purpose — not my own, for I am often conscious of 
resisting it — but which dominates me and makes 
itself felt as ever present, as the very root and rea- 
son of my being. . . . This consciousness of 
a purpose concerning me that I should be a good 
man — right, true, and unselfish — is the first firm 
footing I have in the region of religious thought, 
for I cannot dissociate the idea of a purpose from 
that of a Purposer, and I cannot but identify this 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 63 

Purposer with tlie Author of my being and the 
Being of all beings; and, further, I cannot but 
regard his purpose toward me as the unmistakable 
indication of his own character." ^ y 

There is another branch of the moral argument. 

We find ourselves confronted with evident traces 

of a moral g;overnment. The course of 

A right- P 

eous Moral humau affairs affords sufficient proof of 

Governor. ^ ... 

a righteous administration on the part of 
the Supreme Ruler. Rewards in the form of the 
allotment of happiness follow in the train of vir- 
tue, and suffering is the ordained consequence of 
vice. These rewards and penalties consist not 
only of the feelings which the consciousness of 
right-doing and of wrong-doing produce respect- 
ively among the virtuous and the vicious, but the 
course of things is so arranged that advantages 
and disadvantages in many forms accrue from 
without, according as men obey or disobey the 
moral law. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap," is not merely a declaration of 
Scripture ; it is a fact of observation. It is a 
maxim which is based on a wide range of experi- 
ence. It is true that the distribution of good and 
evil is not in strict proportion to the deserts of the 
individual. The rule seems to be not without ex- 
ceptions. Calamities befalling the righteous and 

^ " The Spiritual Order and Otlier Papers," pp. 47, 48, quoted 
by Flint, "Theism," p. 402. 



64 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

prosperity enjoyed by the wicked are plienomena 
which demand a particular consideration. But 
however the allotments of Providence may strike 
us as falling short of the requirements of justice, 
or as varying from them, there is enough left to 
convince the candid observer of the lives of indi- 
viduals and of the history of nations that a right- 
eous God reigns and orders the succession of 
events. 

Not only are we furnished with proofs of the 

justice of God by experience and observation, 

there are not wanting likewise evidences 

the benevo- of his benevolcuce. No reasonable 

lence of God. 

person who contemplates the great ag- 
gregate of happiness which exists among sentient 
beings, men and the creatures below men, and no- 
tices how this happiness results from provisions 
in Nature directly adapted to produce it, can 
avoid the impression that the Creator and Lord of 
all is benevolent. It would be impossible to col- 
lect into a catalogue the sources of pleasure, and 
the methods of relief from pain, which have been 
introduced into the constitution and environment 
of the creatures of God that are capable of happi- 
ness. As to the suffering that exists in the world, 
while it does not destroy this conviction, it is still 
a perplexing fact which calls for special atten- 
tion. 

The question is, why does evil exist under the 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 65 

dominion of a God of absolute power and perfect 
goodness ? This is a problem which in the pres- 
The problem ^^^^ cliscussion we cannot neglect to ex- 

of evil. amine. Evil is of various kinds. There 
is first, "metaphysical evil/' as it is sometimes 
named — evil of a negative kind, consisting in 
Three kinds ^^^^ abscnco of happiness which re- 

ofevii. snlts from limitations of capacity. A 
perfectly happy man, in proportion as his powers 
are less than those of an angel, is de]3rived of the 
surplus of happiness which the angel possesses. 
The cup of happiness may be full, but the cup is 
not so large. Secondly, there is physical evil or 
positive pain of whatever kind. Thirdly, there is 
moral evil — wrong-doing, or sin. Before taking 
up the question why evil of these different kinds is 
permitted to exist in the universe of God, it is de- 
sirable to call attention to the impregnable fortress 
in which the truth of the divine righteousness and 
Doctrine of beuevolcuce is sheltered. That truth, 
ne^si^impreg- whatever difficulties may exist in con- 
nection with it, is safe against every 
assault. The basis of it is in the constitution of 
our moral nature. In the human conscience 
God has expressed his preference for righteous- 
ness and his purpose that man should be right- 
eous, and he has defined righteousness to be Love. 
In making Love the law, he has demonstrated that 
he is Love. There is no other rational interpre- 
5 



66 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

tation of conscience. To distrust the justice or 
goodness of God is to distrust conscience. It is 
to cast away the organ and criterion of judgment. 
It is thus to disqualify ourselves for all such in- 
quiry and criticism as the problem of evil suggests. 
For whence does the sceptic derive the faculties 
by which he undertakes to criticise the moral sys- 
tem ? Where did he obtain the standard on 
which his judgments are based ? If the universe 
is so at fault, what assurance has he that his own 
judging faculty, the author of this unfavorable 
verdict, is any better constructed ? In truth, re- 
liance on our faculties, whether intellectual or 
moral, involves trust in the rectitude of the Crea- 
tor. If it be granted, therefore, that the solution 
of this problem of evil is beyond the reach of our 
faculties — and none save the presumptuous would 
pretend to be able completely to solve it — our 
faith in God and in his moral attributes will 
stand unshaken. After this preliminary remark, 
we offer a few observations on the particular topic 
before us. 

Metaphysical evil, that definition of evil which 
is owing to limits of capacity for happiness, ex- 
I Met a- ^^^^ ^^ necessity, if there are to be finite 
physical evu. beings. No finite being can be as 
blessed as the infinite One. Unless one is pre- 
pared to object to the existence of a system of 
beings possessed of varied capacities — unless one 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 67 

is prepared to object to the exertion of creative 
power altogether — the objection on account of 
metaphysical evil falls to the ground. 

As regards physical evil, it is clear at the out- 
set that no small part of the suffering in the world 
n Physical ^^ incidental to the operation of general 
^^^^- laws, and that these laws are beneficent 
in their operation. Nature is a system. There is 
no reason to think it desirable that it should not 
Nature- a ^® ^ system. Were it not, foresight of 

system. anything beyond the present moment 
would be impossible. Human existence, if it 
could be kept up, would be a scene of hopeless 
confusion. The nerves which occasion exquisite 
pain when the body is accidentally touched by 
fire, are the sentinels that warn us of the approach 
of peril. Without their susceptibility to pain, 
they could not fulfil their merciful office. A 
man, perhaps a noble and useful man, loses his 
foothold at the edge of the sea, and is drowned. 
Who will venture to say that it would be bet- 
ter under such circumstances, all things consid- 
ered, for the law of gravitation to be suspended by 
a miraculous interference ? The great amount 
of pain that ensues from the inheritance of bod- 
Law of hered- ^1 ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ inseparable from the 
^^^- law of heredity. But this law is the 
fountain of incalculable good. Who would wish 
to have it annulled? AVho would wish men 



68 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

to be, instead of a race bound together by an 
organic bond, a congeries of individuals utterly 
independent in their origin ? Since human be- 
ings are united by a social tie, and since they 
band together in society — in families and nations 
— it is inevitable that the innocent should suffer 
with the guilty. This is the price paid of neces- 
sity for the blessings of the social state. 

Human life is a school of discipline. The ener- 
gies of mankind are developed in conflict. There 
must be a struR'Sfle for subsistence. 



Evil 



-^55 



means of dis- There must be a battle, with dan^-ers to 

cipline. . ^ 

life, and health, and peace. The intel- 
lect is stimulated. Virtues of character grow up 
in the midst of scenes that involve peril. Com- 
plete safety and plenty are not the conditions 
under which civilization advances and manliness 
attains to its full development. 

These are among the reflections which have 
weight in answer to the objection to Theism on 

the OTOund of the existence of physical 

Physical . . . 

the fruit of evil. But there is another thoug;ht in this 

Moral evil. *^ 

connection oi cardinal importance. We 
live in a world where moral evil, voluntary wrong- 
doing, abounds. This being the fact it is pre- 
sumptuous to affirm that the physical evil that 
exists might profitably be excluded. We know, as 
concerns the sufferings of the wicked themselves, 
that in countless instances it is better that they 



TEE MORAL ARGUMENT 69 

should suffer. The system of things would not be 
improved by an opposite arrangement under which 
iniquity should bring with it no loss or pain. For 
aught that can be shown to the contrary, on the 
supposition that moral evil is to exist it may be 
well that all the physical evil of which we have 
any knowledge is ordained to exist. It is the dic- 
tate of a wise humility to bear in mind that we are 
dealing in our thoughts with a system imperfectly 
comprehended. 

The stress of the diJfSculty concerning the ex- 
istence of evil centres in the question respecting 
ni. Moral ^oral evil. Why is wrong-doing allowed 
®^^* to take place ? Why is not sin ex- 
cluded? If God is almighty, why does he 
not prevent it? The hostility of God to sin is 
plainly manifested in the testimonies of nature 
to which we have had occasion to advert. He 
has promulgated in conscience his law against 
it. He has proclaimed his approbation of right 
moral actions and his condemnation of wrong 
moral actions in the system of rewards and penal- 
ties which occur by the operation of natural laws. 
These laws are his ordinances. In reference to 
this subiect, the fact that God in his 

Sm over- 

ruled for Providcuce ovcrrulcs wrong -doing, baf- 
fles to so great an extent its natural ten- 
dencies, and makes it the occasion of good, sheds 
some light upon the problem. His holiness can- 



70 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

not be challenged. Still the inquiry remains, why 
some other means of securing the good attained 
by overruling man's evil-doing are not adopted? 
Why is sin permitted to defile the creation and 
bring into it so much disorder and ruin ? Seeing 
that his benevolence, his opposition to the occur- 
rence of moral evil, is manifest, we are naturally 
led to ask whether there may not be 

Possible •^ . 

that sin can- somethius^ to render the exclusion of 

not be wisely y 

p^eyenteci by moral evil, by divine interposition, from 
the created system incompatible with 
the nature of things. The reason given in Script- 
ure for allowing the tares to grow with the wheat 
contains a suggestion in Natural Theology. It is 
conceivable that some contradiction may be in- 
volved in the exclusion of wrong-doing where 
wrong-doing actually occurs in that vast system 
of created things of which we see but a small part. 
To make a thing to be and not to be at the same 
time is not an object of power. Omnipotence is 
the power to do all things not involving a contra- 
diction. The glory of the divine system is that 
it contains in it a multitude, we know not how 
great, of free beings, endowed with the capacity 
of choice, and therefore, of necessity, with the 
power to elect evil rather than good. It is con- 
ceivable that the exertions of divine power which 
would be indispensable in order to prevent the 
occurrence of sin where as a matter of fact it ex- 



THE MORAL ARGUMENT 71 

ists, would needs carry with tliem, as an inciden- 
tal effect, such a deterioration of the system as 
would more than balance the advantaoje 

Possible . . . p 

evil results p;ained. The secret of the permission of 

from an alter- ^ ... 

ation of the moral cvil mav lie in the fact of free-will, 

system of ^ ^ *^ ^ ^ 

created agen- existiuQ;' to SO broad ail extent as it does 

cies. ^ p 

exist in the best of all the systems 
eligible, even to unlimited power. This is the 
same as to say, not that God cannot prevent the 
evil that exists from occurring, but that he cannot 
wisely do so. We are not bound to prove that 
this is the true solution of the problem. To meet 
objections in relation to the divine attributes, it is 
only requisite to show that it may he the true so- 
lution. As long as the exclusion of evil may be 
thus incompatible Avith wisdom, and due to no 
proper deficiency in power, the objector is dis- 
armed. 



CHAPTEE V. 

THE INTUITION OF THE INFINITE AND ABSOLUTE 

The words *' infinite" and '^absolute" are, as 
regards verbal form, negative. " Infinite " signi- 
what the ^^^ *^® '' not-limited," and '^absolute" 
terms mean, (j^notes the '' n OH -relative." A generic 
word whicli includes both terms under it is the 
" unconditioned," which is also in its verbal form 
a negative. But we must guard against tlie idea 
that these terms, even when they are used as sub- 
stantives, denote something non-existent. 

When we look abroad upon the world, we find a 
multitude of objects, each of which is limited in 
Perception ^^^ powers, none of which is complete or 
and^the reia- independent. There is everywhere de- 
^'^^* marcation, mutual dependence, and re- 

ciprocal action. Looking within, we find ourselves 
in like manner restricted. Our mental action is 
conformed to a definite mental constitution. We 
arrive at distinct self-consciousness by distinguish- 
ing ourselves from things not ourselves. The uni- 
verse is perceived to be a vast complexity of ob- 
jects inter-related, neither of which is independ- 
ent, self-originated, self-sustained. 

Involved in this consciousness of the condi- 



INTUITION OF THE INFINITE AND ABSOL UTE 73 

tioned, there is a consciousness of what, so to 
speak, is its background, the unconditioned. It is 
The uncon- ^^^ Correlate of the finite and relative. It 

ditioned. £g ^^^ ^ mere idea ; it is known as a real- 
ity. There is an intuition of a being, neither finite 
in powers nor related to other beings as a condi- 
tion of existence. Most philosophers at the pres- 
ent day are in accord in teaching that we have this 
necessary belief in the unconditioned. This is true 
of the principal leaders of the agnostic schools. 

Be it observed that the " infinite " does not 
mean the sum of all being. It means that the 

Theinfi- P^^wers or Capacities of the being of 
totaiity^of be- whom infinitude is predicated are limit- 
^^^' less. So the " absolute " does not imply 

that there are no other beings with whom it stands 
in a relation. The meaning is that other beings 

The abso- ^^^ ^^* ncccssary to its existence. Rather 
dusive^ofTii ^^ ^^ sclf-existcnt, and all other things 
bemgseise. ^xist in a relation of dependence with 
reference to it. The absolute being is subject to 
no limitation that is not self-imposed. 

It is sometimes asserted that if the uncondi- 
tioned being is infinite, that being cannot be per- 

The inf i- ^^^^^1. Personality, it is said, implies 
sohite^is p^r- fiuitcness. This is a rash and unfounded 
eonai. inference from the circumstance that in 

the case of man finiteness is connected with per- 
sonality. This is owing to the fact that man's 



74 NATVRAL THBOLOGT 

personality is developed in connection with a 
body, and to the additional fact that he is simply 
one of numerous finite personalities of the same 
class. To assert that self- consciousness cannot ex- 
ist independently of these particular conditions to 
which man is subject, and by which he comes to 
a knowledge of himself, is a leap in logic. The 
unconditioned being may be personal without 
being subject to the restrictions and infirmities 
that pertain to human beings. Personality either 
belongs, or does not belong, to the unconditioned. 
But if personality — that is, self-consciousness and 
self-determination — are wanting, there is surely a 
lack quite inconsistent with any rational concep- 
tion of the infinite and absolute being. Infinitude 
consists not in being destitute of the highest per- 
fections of man. God is infinite, not as being void 
of qualities. A being destitute of qualities is a 
zero. Infinitude is the possession of all conceiv- 
able perfections without measure. 

It is the intuition of the infinite and absolute 

which fills out whatever is deficient in the several 

proofs of Theism that have been ad- 

tude of God's duccd. It fumishes a valid assurance 

attributes. jn j i i • ji 

that he whose power, as seen m the 
universe, is great beyond conception, is literally 
almighty. The like is to be said of his wisdom 
and of all the other divine attributes to which 
nature bears witness. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

ANTI-THEISTIC THEOEIES 

If the arguments on the preceding pages are 
valid, opinions at variance with Theism are logi- 
cally excluded. But brief comments upon such 
theories, in addition to what has been indirectly 
brought forward in refutation of them, will not be 
out of place. 

One form of anti-theistic theory is materialism. 
The coarser form of the doctrine, that thought is 
Material- ^ material substance, is obsolete. The 
ism defined, cloctriue, as far as it is now held, is that 
thought is the attribute or product of nervous 
matter, as magnetism is the property of the load- 
stone. It follows that when the brain dies the 
mind ceases to be. 

In looking at this theory, the first thing that 
strikes us is the absence of any support for it in 
No bridge ^^^ facts of physiology and psychology. 
mind ^and Intimate as is the relation between our 
matter. physical Organism and our conscious 

states of thought, feeling and will, we seek in 
vain for any bridge to span the gulf that separates 



76 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

body and mind. There is no likeness whatever 
between the molecular movements of the brain on 
the one hand, and the perceptions, emotions, and 
volitions which are associated with them. '^ They 
appear together," says Professor Tyndall, '^ but we 
do not know why. The passage from the physics 
of the brain to the corresponding facts of con- 
sciousness is unthinkable." The doc- 

The "con- 
servation of trine of the '^ conservation of enersry " — 

energy." ^ ^ ^»^ 

that no amount of energy is dissipated 
or lost, but simply changes its form, and is re- 
solved into an equivalent — affords not the least aid 
in filling up the chasm between thought and physi- 
cal movement. Force is not transformed into 
thought, nor is thought transformed back again 
into force. '* All the force in the molecular action 
is fully accounted for by physical changes in the 
body." There is no transmission of physical en- 
ergy from matter to mind. There is no imparting 
of energy from mind to matter. What we call the 
'' influence " of mind and body upon one another 
admits of no physical explanation. If the mind 
is strongly affected by physical changes — con- 
sciousness, for example, being suspended in conse- 
quence of a blow on the head — it is equally true 
Reciprocal ^^^ distinctively mental states have a 
min^d^^an^d i^^ciprocal influence upon the body, 
body. rp]^^ emotion of fear brings pallor to the 

cheek. The news of the death of a dear friend 



ANTI-THEISTIO THEORIES 11 

may bereave us in an instant of all strength, or 
strike us prostrate to the earth. No scrutiny into 
the physical antecedents of these effects avails in 
the least to explain them. To seek for a solution 
on this path would be as absurd, from a strictly 
scientific point of view, as to ascribe to conscious- 
ness color, or size, or weight. Close as is the 
connection, therefore, which subsists at present 
between mind and body, it furnishes no proof that 
when the body dies the mind ceases to exist. 

Materialism, and the fatalism which belongs with 

it, really involve absurdities without end. What 

is truth or falsehood on this hypothe- 

Absu r d i - . i • i • i 

ties of mate- gis ? What are reasonable and irrational 

rialism. . . 

judgments? What are sanity and in- 
sanity ? All acts of perception, all states of mind, 
are, any one as much as any other, natural phe- 
nomena occurring in the course of the regular ac- 
tion of nature's laws. The molecular movement of 
the brain, it is said, causes one state of conscious- 
ness to succeed to another ; but, on the material- 
istic philosophy, one is equally rational with the 
other. All are alike necessary steps in the pro- 
cess of evolution. There is no criterion to serve 
as a basis for a distinction between that which is 
normal and that which is abnormal. How can 
one particular disposition of molecules charge 
another with going astray ? The judge is on the 
same level with the parties judged. Tyndall, de- 



78 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

fender of the doctrine that all things that are or 
have been were potentially present in matter, was 
disposed to ascribe the scientific beliefs of Agas- 
siz, whose sincerity he did not question, to the 
circumstance that his grandfather was a clergy- 
man ! But has not everyone a grandfather ? Why 
not attribute Tyndall's own theories to an analo- 
gous cause ? "Who shall decide, as between the 
two progenitors, whose brain w^as the soundest ? 
As we have suggested, how can such a question 
be asked, when all is normal, and when the very 
discrimination by which one sets the grandfather 
of Tyndall above the grandfather of Agassiz is it- 
self a mere phenomenon of molecular action ? Who 
can predict what opinion will emerge upon some 
later shuffle of atoms ? 

There is an irreconcilable conflict between the 
highest feelings and aspirations of the human 
soul and the materialistic theory of the universe. 
It has been justly said that the feeling of compas- 
Material- ^^^'^^ ^^ ^^ uttcr Variance with the system 
d^^ts the^mS- ^f things, in case, as it is asserted, 
ai sentiments, ^^j^^^^ jg pitiUss, and there is no com- 
passionate and helping power besides. Self-for- 
getfulness is the very antipode of self - assertion 
which reigns everywhere in the objective world. 
"The real world," says Mr. Martineau, accord- 
ing to the materialistic creed, ^' provides interests 
alone, which, when adequately masked, call them- 



ANTI-THEISTIC THEORIES 79 

selves virtues, and pass for sometliing new." 
Under the withering breath of materialism, the 
higher feelings lose " all support from Omniscient 
approval, and all presumable accordance with the 
reality of things." 

The argument from conscience effectually con- 
futes materialism. No man of sane mind can deny 
that the phenomena of the moral nat- 

ConsciGncG 

versus mate- urc are as real as any which the senses 

rialisin. , •^ , . . 

or the instruments of a physicist can 
observe. They are facts which science, in the 
large sense of the term, must take notice of or 
abdicate its function. To ignore the vast and 
various phenomena which connect themselves 
with the sense of moral responsibleness, is impos- 
sible. What account shall be given of moral 
praise and blame — of self-approval and censure ? 
Here these feelings are, and here they always have 
been. Do they testify to the truth ? If they do 
not, then away with the language which only 
serves to deceive ; away with all the multiform ex- 
pressions of moral approbation or condemnation ; 
away with courts of law, and the other infinitely 
various manifestations of the sense of justice and 
moral accountableness, on which the entire fabric 
of social life reposes ! The materialist must al- 
loAV that these verdicts of the moral faculty, be 
their genesis what it may, are as valid as are any 
judgments of the intellect. The moral discernment 



80 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

rests on as solid a foundation as tlie intellectual 
perceptions. Now apply the doctrine that the de- 
terminations of the will — the faithfulness of St. 
John, and the treachery of Judas, alike — are the 
necessary effect of atomic movements of matter. 
They simply indicate a certain molecular action of 
the matter in portions of the brain. Then moral 
approval or condemnation, the joy of one who has 
triumphed over a temptation, the remorse of one 
who has betrayed the innocent, are the veriest 
folly. A man who maliciously shoots his neighbor 
has no more occasion to blame himself for the 
deed than has a horse who destroys a man's life 
by a kick. Men call such an animal, in figurative 
speech, a vicious animal ; and, if materialism is 
true, there is no other kind of vice possible to a 
human being. Tyndall, in one of his productions, 
argues that this doctrine of molecular ethics is 
perfectly consistent with the application of motives 
for the purpose of inducing men to act in one way 
rather than another. These motives, it is implied, 
are forces thrown into the scale that the beam may 
rise on the opposite side. This is the statement 
which fatalists of every type are forever making. 
But the point insisted upon is not the freedom of 
the will as known by direct consciousness, although 
this evidence of man's moral freedom is incontro- 
vertible ; but the phenomena of moral approval 
and disapproval, of guilt, self-accusation, and re- 



ANTI-THEISTIC THEORIES 81 

morse, are the facts that demand some explana- 
tion which shall not discredit their reality in the 
very attempt to explain them. Here it is that 
the materialistic psychology breaks down. Nor 
can it be said that this is opposing a doctrine by 
merely pointing out its mischievous consequences. 
The affirmations of conscience referred to as put- 
ting to rout the advocates of materialism are as 
truly perceptions and judgments as are any of 
the propositions that result from the exercise of 
the senses or the understanding. If materialistic 
evolution, as predicated of moral action, be true, 
the rational nature is at war with itself. There is 
an insoluble contradiction in human intelligence 
itself, which no sophistical juggle of words can 
avail to cover up, much less to remove. 

Pantheism denies the personality of God. The 
God of the Pantheist is not only immanent in the 

Forms of ^^^rld I this the Theist also believes. 
Pantheism, g^^ ^j^^ Pantheist knows of no Deity 
separable from the world or as anything else than 
its all-pervading cause or essence. Spinoza held 
that God is the impersonal substance of which all 
things are the manifestation. Hegel, the most 
distinguished of the German Pantheists, held that 
he is the self-unfolding thought-system of the 
universe — the self-unfolding system which consti- 
tutes all reality, and attains to self-consciousness 
in man, or mankind, collectively. 
6 



82 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

Every scheme of Pantheism starts with unproyed 
assumptions. Spinoza's theory of the "one and 
simple substance" is an assumption, 
tions of Pan- The Same is true of Hegel's notion that 
all reality is idealistic. There are yio- 
lations of logic along the course of the construc- 
tion of the Pantheistic systems. 

In making the mind a mere phenomenon or 
transient phase of an impersonal essence, Pan- 
p antheism ^l^^i^i^ coutradicts our consciousness. 
coSl^/fJus- ^^^ mind knows itself to be a distinct, 
^^^^' substantial, undivided unity, the centre 

and source of all mental operations. 

Every system of Pantheism is necessarian. It 
overthrows by necessary consequence moral re- 
p antheism spousibility, the absolute antithesis of 
wi^h^Ton^- good and evil, the distinction between 
science. natural history and moral history. Spi- 
noza regards remorse as unreasonable, and finds 
no place for penitence. Moral evil, whenever it 
occurs, must be pronounced by the Pantheist to be 
normal. 

Positivism is the antipode of Pantheism. The 
Positivist asserts that nothing is known but phe- 
nomena. Of causes, efficient or final, we 

Positivism •tit -i i -i oi • 

self -contra- are said to have no knowledge, bcience 

is the arrangement of observed facts 

under the heads of likeness and unlikeness, and 

simultaneity or succession in time. But where 



ANTI-THEISTIC THEORIES 83 

does the Positivist get the notions of likeness and 
temporal succession ? They surely do not come 
to us through the senses. Causation and design 
have as good a warrant as these ideas. It is un- 
deniable that our mental states form a distinct, pe- 
culiar class. If they are not to be referred to the 
mind as their source, they must be attributed to 
matter. But to adopt this latter branch of the al- 
ternative would be to fall back into materialism. 

Agnosticism differs from Positivism in asserting 
that behind phenomena there is a reality which is 
G^or^oowe thclr sTouud. But of the nature of that 
^lory.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ reality it professes to be absolutely ig- 
norant. It is an '^ Unknowable." Our 
states of consciousness are its effects. " A Power," 
says Herbert Spencer, ''of which the nature re- 
mains forever inconceivable, and to which no 
limits in time or space can be imagined, works in 
us certain effects." ^ The method in which the in- 
scrutable Power acts is Evolution. Matter differ- 
entiates itself, passing on through successive stages, 
until nervous organism comes to exist, and at 
length personal consciousness arises. AH our 
mental life, with its complex contents, is woven 
out of sensations. It is denied that this theory is 
materialism, for the reason that the nature of the 
underlying reality is declared to be inscrutable. 
All our perceptions of the world outside of con- 
' <* First Principles,*' p. 557. 



84 NATVRAL THEOLOGY 

sciousness are affirmed to be symbolical. The 
symbols, however, afford no clew to the discern- 
ment of what they stand for. 

It is evident that in this system nature is made 

to beget consciousness, and consciousness, in turn, 

is made to beget nature. "We know 

Agnosti- ^ 

cism self- nothmsj oi nature except as " transfier- 

contradictory. . . 

ured " m consciousness. It is plain, 
moreover, that " the unknowable " is confessed to 
be known when it is said that " the unknowable " 
works in us certain effects. If it is a ''Power," a 
'' Cause," there is equal ground for saying that the 
attribute of wisdom belongs to it, and the other 
attributes which are discovered in its effects. It is 
said that we know not w^hat is denoted by '' power " 
and '' cause." But take away '' cause," whatever 
it be, from '' the unknowable," nothing is left ; and 
it is granted that the only cause of which we have 
any idea is our own personal activity. 

The Agnostic attaches the same symbolical char- 
acter, or anthropomorphism, to all our conceptions 

and lang;uag:e respectiner nature as he as- 

Religionon ^ ^^i . n- i • ..^ -i ^. 

a level with serts to be implied m attributmoj per- 

science. . ■*■ . <-> a. 

sonality to God. Thus it follows that 
the truths of natural religion stand on the same 
basis as the natural sciences — chemistry, for ex- 
ample, with its doctrine of the atomic constitution 
of matter. 

Theism concludes that God is an intelligent be- 



ANTI-THEISTIC THEORIES 85 

ing because intelligence is manifest in the effects 
of his agency. Paley makes use of a watch to il- 
lustrate the argument of design. Herbert Spencer 
makes the strange observation that could the watch, 
in Paley s example, think, it would judge its crea- 
tor to be like itself, a watch. Could the watch 
think and choose, it would be rational, and would 
then reason like other rational beings, and con- 
clude that the artificer of such a product as itself 
must have designed it beforehand — that is to say, 
must be a mind. 

Agnosticism, denying the reality of the ec/o, de- 
nies at the same time man's moral freedom in any 
true sense of the terms, and thus sweeps 
cism denies away that pcrsoual responsibility for 
our moral choices which is a fact of con- 
sciousness. 

Agnosticism, like other systems more or less 

kindred to it, is built on what is called the relativ- 

^ ity of knowleds^e — a doctrine which, in 

Alleged . . 

relativity of the seuse aiveu to it, is untenable. It is 

knowledge. ^^ ... 

the doctrine that the mind is incapable 
of knowing things as they are ; that knowledge is 
a process going forward within us to which there 
is no corresponding reality ; that the mind is, so 
to speak, a mill which so transforms whatever 
falls into it that its original likeness vanishes. 
Sound philosophy begins in the full and consistent 
recognition of the veracity of our knowing facul- 



86 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

ties. Intuitions are the counterpart of reality. 
The laws of thought are the laws of things. Dis- 
tinct as mind and nature are, there is such an 
affinity in the constitution of both, and such an 
adaptation of each to each, that knowledge is not 
the bare product of subjective activity, but a reflex 
of reality. In the manifestations of God in the 
soul and in the world without, God is truly mani- 
fest. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

THE FUTUEE LIFE OF THE SOUL 

Does the soul survive tlie death of the body ? 
"We cannot infer that it does from the native de- 
Future life ^^^^ ^^ ^ continuance of life, for the 
bfthe^desire lower animals share with man this in- 
to live. stinctive desire, which is provided as a 
means of self-preservation. It is only when this 
desire rises into a loftier aspiration, the object of 
which is something higher than the mere prolon- 
gation of life, that it can enter into the foundation 
of a belief in an existence beyond death. 

In answering the question proposed above, the 

first point to determine is whether man has a soul. 

If what we term the soul is nothinar but 

Material- ^ . i p • p i i t 

ism exciud- a tunctiou, or mode of action, oi the body, 
or of parts of it, it would be absurd to 
expect the soul to outlive our physical organism. 
We might as well look for speech when the vocal 
organs are dissolved into dust. Materialism, where 
it is accepted, is fatal to the belief in a future life 
of the spirit. The reasons have already been in- 
dicated which evince materialism to be a ground- 



88 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

less theory, resting on superficial impressions, and 
vanishing under the scrutiny of science. There is 
nothing, therefore, in the relation of the body to 
the soul to prevent the soul from continuing to 
exist in other spheres of activity when it parts 
company with its material vesture. There are 
considerations that tend to inspire the belief that 
such is its destiny. 

Man, within the period of his earthly life, does 
not and cannot attain to the end of his being. He 
is capable of an indefinite intellectual 
the capacity progrcss. The lowcr auimals are bouudcd 
or progress. ^^ \^(^yx advancement by the operations 
of instinct. Their horizon is close about them. 
Being endowed with reason and with aspirations 
after knowledge, man, when his intellectual nature 
has been stirred within him, is debarred from trav- 
ersing the field that ever allures him onward. He 
is obliged to halt on a journey which would seem 
to have just begun. The career is cut short for 
which he appears to be destined, and for which he 
is fitted by the Author of his being. If it be 
thought that death extinguishes the spiritual part, 
the design of God respecting him seems to be 
thwarted. It is rational to suppose that death is 
a passage through a gate to an ampler field where 
progress in knowledge will not be broken off. 

A cogent proof that death is not the end of the 
soul's life is found in the fact that the system of 



THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE SOUL 89 

moral government which God is evidently carry- 
ing forward in this world is here incomplete. 
God's mor- In tliis system he is revealed as allot- 
melt^i^ncom- ting happiness to the good and suffering 
P^^^^- to the wicked. The method of his ad- 

ministration is clearly discerned. The purpose is 
brought to light. But the system is not strictly 
or fully carried out. There is not an exact pro- 
portion betw^een the character of individuals and 
their lot. Here on earth the harvest is but partially 
reaped. It is said that virtue is its ow^n reward, 
and vice its own penalty. This maxim has a 
foundation in truth, as pointing to the fact that 
the best rewards and the severest punishments are 
not of an external nature, but lie within the sphere 
of the soul which is holy or guilty. Yet time is 
required, and very often a longer time than the 
limit of the longest earthly life allows, for spiritual 
blessedness on the one hand, and misery on the 
other, to emerge in their full and proper measure. 
Virtue, while in the struggle with temptation, does 
not yet enjoy the fruits of virtue. To attain these 
virtue must be established in undisputed control 
over insubordinate ideas and passions. Wicked- 
ness, as long as its prosperity lasts, does not feel 
the stings of conscience in their full severity. The 
evil man may die before remorse overtakes him. 
Nor ought we to omit to notice the fact that inno- 
cence may not infrequently fail of a just vindica- 



90 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

tion on the present stage of human life, and in- 
iquity may escape a righteous exposure. Is not 
the expectation of the maligned, of the yictims of 
fallible human verdicts, that a day of redress will 
come, rational? And is not the fearful looking- 
for of judgment, a feeling so natural to the iniqui- 
tous, equally rational ? 

One period of our life is perceived to involve a 
prohation in reference to the period that follows. 
Life a proba- Our character and circumstances in the 

*^^^* later period are determined by what we 
do, or fail to do, in the earlier. This is not a con- 
jecture, it is not a mere probability ; it is a truth 
of experience. The child is father of the man. 
The observed fact of a probation takes away the 
charge of unreasonableness in the idea that the 
whole of life here is a probation as related to a life 
hereafter. But the fact of probation is more than 
a mere analogy. It has more than a simply nega- 
tive force. We see that probation, with its two ele- 
ments of sowing and reaping, is not, as we have 
before remarked, closed up in the present life. 
Hence we are justified in anticipating a continu- 
ance of conscious life in a world beyond. 

The reality of a future life is a reasonable con- 
clusion from the worth of the soul. The human 
The worth ^^ul is the goal toward which the world's 
of the soul, j^istory prior to man points and leads. 
Man is the crowning work of God. His value lies 



THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE SOUL 91 

in the spirit that is in him. The long approach 
in the upward course of things at last conducts to 
this product of supreme worth, the rational soul, 

*' With such large discourse, 
Looking before and after .... 
That capabihtj and godlike reason.'* 

Will a thing of priceless worth be blotted out of 
being? "Will the Maker fling away to nothing- 
ness the consummate work of his hands ? 

Inyestigation shows us that through the creation 
a purpose runs. Everything that comes from God 
has its place in a comprehensive design. But un- 
less man survives death all is for naught. The 
world as a whole is purposeless. It terminates 
in no end commensurate with the wisdom discov- 
ered in its creation. 

The religious nature of man, his capacity for fel- 
lowship with God, warrants the expectation of a 
Man's ca- li^ beyond death. Would God enter 
FowsMp with iiito a close relation of spiritual fellow- 
^°^' ship with a creature whom he intended 

in a few days to strike out of existence, or to suffer 
to become absolutely extinct ? It appears incred- 
ible. This argument is brought forward in the 
Scriptures. It is adduced here, not on the author- 
ity of the Scriptures, but from its intrinsic force as 
an argument. Man in intercourse with his Crea- 



92 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

tor — in such intercourse as takes place in prayer — 
stands on a lofty plane. Such a position is incom- 
patible with the idea that after a short interval he 
is to be left to drop into nothingness. 



NOTE 

THE ONTOLOGICAL AKGUMENT 

This is an argument respecting the force of 
which there is a wide diversity of opinion. It 
professes to prove the being of God from the idea 
of God. It is presented by Anselm of Canterbury 
substantially in this form : We have, and cannot 
but have, the idea of a most perfect being — of a 
being a greater than whom cannot be conceived. 
This being actually exists : otherwise we could 
conceive of a being with all Ms perfection with 
the superadded property of existence. That is to 
say, we could conceive a being more perfect than 
the most perfect. Gaunilo, the monk who debated 
the question with Anselm, urged that if the argu- 
ment w^ere valid, then to imagine the most beau- 
tiful island is tantamount to proving its existence. 
In the same spirit Kant remarks that the concep- 
tion of one hundred dollars is very different from 
having one hundred dollars in one's pocket. The 
reply of Anselm to Gaunilo was in effect this, that 
the conception of a perfect island is an arbitrary, 
artificial notion, whereas the conception of the 



94 NATURAL THEOLOGY 

most perfect being is necessary. It is objected 
that existence is not an element in the concept, that 
the sum of the attributes is the same whether the 
idea has an object corresponding to it or not. To 
this it has been replied that it is necessary exist- 
ence — self-existence — which enters into the idea of 
the most perfect being — that is, not mere existence, 
but a mode of existence ; and that this is a prop- 
erty or element in the concept. 

The intuition of the Absolute appears to em- 
brace what the Anselmic argument attempts to 
cast into a syllogistic form. 

Anselm's proof has been defended by Hegel. 
It is not rejected by Flint, '' Theism " p. 279, and 
is considered yalid by Shedd, "History of Doc- 
trine," Yol. i., p. 238. 

Another proof of the existence of God from 
the Truth, the common bond of thoughts and 
things, is presented in " The Grounds of Theistic 
and Christian Belief," p. 41. 



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and of all degrees of experience will rejoice in it as a veritable mine of wisdom." 

THE INDEPENDENT.—" The volume is to be conamended to young men as a 
superb example of the art in which it aims to instruct tbem." 

THE WATCHMAN.— "The reading of it is a mental tonic. The preacher 
cannot but feel often Ms heart burning within him under its influence. We could 
wish it might be in the hands of every theological student and of every pastor." 

MEN AND BOOKS; OR, STUDIES IN HOMILETICS. Lectures 
Introductory to the "Theory of Preaching." By Professor 
AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 

Professor Phelps' second volume of lectures is devoted to a dis- 
cussion of the sources of culture and power in the profession of the 
pulpit, its power to absorb and appropriate to its own uses the world 
of real life in the present, and the world of the past, as it lives in 
books. 

PROFESSOR GEORGE P. FISHER.— "It is a lim book, animated as well as 
sound and instructive, in which conventionalities are brushed aside, and the 
author goes straight to the marrow of the subject. No minister can read it 
without being waked up to a higher conception of the possibilities of his calUng." 

BOSTON WATCHMAN.—*' We are sure that no minister or candidate for the 
ministry can read it without profit. It is a tonic for one's mind to read a book so 
laden with thought and suggestion, and written in a style sc fresh, strong, and 
bracing." 

A TREATISE ON HOMILETICS AND PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 
By W. G. T. SHEDD, D.D. Crown 8vo, $2.50. 

In this work, treating of the main points of Homiletics and Pastoral 
Theology, the author handles his subject in a masterly manner, an(j 
displays much original and highly suggestive thought. The Homileti 
cal part is especially valuable to ministers aud those in training for thf 
ministry. Dr. Shedd's style is a model of purity, simplicity and 
strength. 

THE NEW YORK EVANGELIST.—" We cannot but regard it as, on the whole 
the very best production of the kind with which we are acquainted. The topicr 
discussed are of the first importance to every minister of Christ engaged in activ 
service, and their discussion is conducted by earnestness as well as ability, and i ,• 
a style which for clear, vigorous, and unexceptionable English, is itself a model. " 

THE CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER.— «« The ablest booK on the subjeet whiciQ 
the generation has produced." 



BIBLICAL STUDY. 



BIBLICAL STUDY. Its Principles, Metliods, and History. By 
CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and 
Cognate Languages in Union Theological Seminary. Crown 
8vo, $2.50. 

The author has aimed to present a guide to Biblical Study for the 
intelligent layman as well as the theological student and minister of 
the Gospel. At the same time a sketch of the entire history of each 
department of Biblical Study has been given, the stages of its develop- 
ment are traced, the normal is discriminated from the abnormal, and 
the whole is rooted in the methods of Christ and His Apostles. 

THE BOSTON ADVERTISER.— "The principles, methods, and history of 
Biblical study are very fully considered, and it is one of the best works of its kind 
In the language, if not the only book wherein the modern methods of the study 
of the Bible are entered into, apart from direct theological teaching." 

THE LONDON SPECTATOR.— *' Dr. Briggs' book is one of much value, not the 
less to be esteemed because of the moderate compass into which its mass of in- 
formation has been compressed." 

MESSIANIC PROPHECY. The Prediction of the Fulfilment of 
Redemption through the Messiah. A Critical Study of the 
Messianic Passages of the Old Testament in the Order of 
their Development. By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., Pro- 
fessor of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages in the Union 
Theological Seminary. Crown 8vo, $2.50, 
In this work the author develops and traces "the prediction of 
the fulfilment of redemption through the Messiah " through the whole 
;;eries of Messianic passages and prophecies in the Old Testament. 
Beginning with the first vague intimations of the great central thought 
of redemption he arrays one prophecy after another ; indicating clearly 
the general condition, mental and spiritual, out of which each prophecy 
arises ; noting the gradual widening, deepening, and clarification of 
the prophecy as it is developed from one prophet to another to the 
end of the Old Testament canon. 

THE LONDON ACADEMY.— "His new book on Messianic Prophecy is a 
wcrthy companion to his indispensable text-book on Biblical study. He has pro- 
duced the first Englisti text-book on the subject of Messianic Prophecy wtdcb a 
modern teacber can use." 

THE EVANGEL LIST.— "Messianic Prophecy is a subject of no common inter- 
est* and tins book is no ordinary book. It is, on ttie contrary, a work of the very 
first order ; the ripe product of years of study upon the highest themes. It is 
exegesis in a master-hand.'' 



CHARLES SGRIBNERS SONS^ 



THE DOCTRINE OF SACRED SCRIPTURE. A Critical, His 
torical, and Dogmatic Inquiry into the Origin and Nature 
of the Old and New Testaments. By GEORGE T. LADD, 
D.D., Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Yale 
College. 2 vols., 8yo, $7.00. 

J. HENRY THAYER, D.D.— "It is tlie most elaborate, erudite, judicious diS' 
eussion of the doctrine of Scripture, in its various aspects, witli wluch I am 
acquainted. I have no hesitation in saying that, for ena'oling a young minister 
to present views alike wise and reverent respecting the nature and use ot 
Sacred Scripture, nay, for giving him in general a Biblical outlook upon Chris- 
tian theology, both in its theoretical and its practical relations, the faithful study 
of this thorough, candid, scholarly work will be worth to him as much as half 
the studies of his seminary course." 

GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D.— '* Professor Ladd's work is from the pen ol 
an able and trained scholar, candid in spirit and thorough in his researches. It 
is so comprehensive in its plan, so complete in the presentation of facts, and so 
closely related to * the burning questions ' of the day, that it cannot fail to enlist 
the attention of all earnest students of theology." 

WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. By MARVIN R. 
.VINCENT, D.D. Vol. I.-The Synoptic Gospels, Acts of the 
Apostles, and the Epistles of Peter, James and Jude. Vol. 
II.— The Writings of John— The Gospel, the Epistles, the 
Apocalypse. 8vo, per vol., $4.00. Vol. III. ready. 

The purpose of the author is to enable the English reader and 
student to get at the original force, meaning, and color of the signifi- 
cant words and phrases as used by the different writers. An introduc- 
tion to the comments upon each book sets forth in compact form what 
is known about the author — how, where, with what object, and 
with what peculiarities of style he wrote. Dr. Vincent has gathered 
from all sources and put in an easily comprehended form a great quan- 
tity of information of much value to the critical expert as well as to 
the studious layman who wishes to get at the real spirit of the Greek 
text. 

REV. DR. HOWARD CROSBY.— "Dr. Vincent's 'Word Studies in the New 
Testament ' is a delicious book. As a Greek scholar, a clear tmnker, a logical 
reasoner, a master in English, and a devout sympathizer with the truths of reve- 
lation, Dr. Vincent is just the man to interest and edify the Church with such a 
work as this. There are few scholars who, to such a degree as Dr. Vincent, 
mingle scholarly attainment with aptness to impart knowledge in attractive form. 
All Bible-readers should enjoy and profit by these delightful ' Word Studies.' " 

DR. THEO. L. GUYLER, in The N. T. Evangelist— "The very things which 
a young minister— and many an older one also— ought to know about the chief 
words in his New Testament he will be able to learn in this affluent volume. 
Years of close study by one of our brightest Greek scholars, have been condensed 
into its pages." 



MENTAL AND MORAL SCIENCE. 



AN OUTLINE STUDY OF MAN; or, the Body and Mind in On* 
System. With illustrative diagrams. Revised edition. By 
MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., late President cf Williams 
College. 12mo, SI. 75. 

This is a model of the developing method as applied to intellectua* 
science. The work is on an entirely new plan. It presents man in 
his unity, and his several faculties and their relations are so presented 
to the eye in illustrative diagrams as to be readily apprehended. 
The work has come into very general use in this country as a man- 
ual for instruction, and the demand for it is increasing every year. 

GENERAL S. C. ARMSTRONG, Principal of Ilampton Institute.— "lam 
glad of the opportunity to express my liigli appreciation of Dr. Hopkins' Outline 
Study c/ 3fan. It has done more forme personally than any book besides the 
Bible. More than any other it teaches the greatest of lessons, Tcnow thyself. Foi 
over ten years, I have made it a text book in the Senior Class of this school. It 
s, I think, the greatest and most useful of the books of the greatest of our Am- 
erican educators, Eev. Dr. Hopkins, and is destined to do a great work in forming 
not only the ideas but the character of youth in America and in other parts of the 
world." 

PR3F. ADDISON BALLARD, of Lafayette College.— "I have for years use(? 
Dr. Hopkins' Outline Study of Man, in connection with his Law of Love, as a text 
book for our Senior Classes. I have done this with unfailing success and witli 
increasing satisfaction. It is of incalculable advantage to the student to come 
under the influence, through his books, of this great master of thought and of style. 
C cannot speak of Outline Stu^y in terms of too hearty commendation." 

THE LAW OF LOVE, AND LOVE AS A LAW; or, Christian 
Ethics. By MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., late President 
of Williams College. 12mo, $1.75. 

This work is designed to follow the author's Outline Study of Man. 
As its title indicates it is entirely an exposition of the cardinal precept 
of Christian philosophy in harmony with nature and on the basis of 
reason. Like the treatise on mental philosophy it is adapted with 
inusual skill to educational uses. 

It appears in a new edition which has been in part re-written in 
order to bring it into closer relation to his Outline Study of MaUy of 
which work it is really a continuation. More prominence has been 
given to the idea of Rights, but the fundamental doctrines of th^ 
treatise have not been chang^ed. 



CHARLES SGRIBNEirS SONS' 



PSYCHOLOGY. By JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., ex-PresidenI 
of Princeton College. I.— The Cognitive Powers. II.— The 
Motive Powers. 2 vols., 12mo. Sold separately. Each, 
$1.50. 

The first volume contains an analysis of the operations of the senses, 
and of their relation to the intellectual processes, with a discussiou 
of sense perception, from the physiological side, accompanied by 
appropriate cuts. The second volume treats of the Motive Powers, as 
they are called, the Orective. the Appetent, the Impulsive Powers ; 
including the Conscience, Emotions, and Will. 

PROF. WILLIAM DE W. HYDE, of BowOoin College.— ''The hoo^ is written 
iD a clear and simple style ; it breathes a sweet and winning spirit ; and it is 
inspired by a noble purpose. In these respects it is a model of what a text 
book should be." 

S. L. CALDWELL, late President of Vassar College.—" It is what was to have 
been expected from the abiUty and long experience of the author. The style is 
clear and simple; the matter is well distributed: it well covers the ground 
usually taught in such text books, and I am sure any teacher would find it a 
helpful guide in his classes." 

FIRST AND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. Being a Treatise or 
Metaphysics. By JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., ex-Presi- 
dent of Princeton College. 12mo, S2.00. 

EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE.— "Every thinking mind has occasion a: 
times to refer to first principles. In this work I have set myself earnestly to in- 
quire what these are ; to determine their nature, and to classify and arrange 
them into a science. In pursuing this end I have reached a Realistic Philosophy 
opposed alike to the Sceptical Philosophy, which has proceeded from Hume, in 
England, and the Idealistic Philosophy, which has ramified from Kant, in Ger- 
many ; while I have also departed from the Scottish and higher French Schools, 
as I hold resolutely that the mind, in its intelligent acts, begins with, and pro 
ceeds throughout on a cognition of things." 

BOSTON TRAVELLER.— "The deep truth so ably presented by this gran'!. 
metaphysician in this study of principles, and the satisfaction to be found in his 
system of realistic philosophy renders the work one of those valuable contributions 
to intellectual progress, whose advent is an important event in the progress ol 
the human race." 

ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY. B^ 
GEORGE T. LADD, D.D., Professor of Mental and Moral 
Philosophy in Yale University. With numerous illustrations. 
8vo, $4.50. 

PROF. WILLIAM JAMES, in The Nation.— "Uia erudition and his broad- 
mindedness are on a par with each other ; and his volume will probably fur many 
years to come be the standard work of reference on the subject." 

THE SCHOOL JOURNAL.— "It is impossible in a brief notice to give any 
adequate conception of the scientific character and practical application of this 
admirable volume. In its class it stands alone among American books. No 
thorough student of psychology will rest satisfied until he owns a copy of thla 
work," 



STANDARD TEXT BOOKS, 



FINAL CAUSES, By PAUL JANET, Member of the French 
Academy. With a Preface by Robert Flint, D.D., LL.Dt 
From second French edition. 8vo, $2.50. 

PROF. FRANCIS L. PATTON, of Princeton TTieological Seminary.— 'I re* 
gard Janet's ' Final Causes ' as incomparably the best thing in literature on the 
subject of which it treats, and that it ought to be in the hands of every man who 
has any interest in the present phases of the theistic problem. I have recom- 
mended it to my classes in the seminary, and make constant use cf it in my in- 
structions." 

NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., late President Of Yale College.- •" I am delighted 
that you have published Janet's ' Final Causes ' in an improved form and at a 
price which brings it within the reach of many who desire to possess it. It is, la 
my opinion, the most suggestive treatise on this important topic which is access- 
ible in our language. '* 

THE HUMAN INTELLECT. By NOAH PORTER, D.D.. LL.D., 

late President of Yale College. With an Introduction upon 
Psychology and the Human Soul. 8vo, $5.00. 
The author has not only designed tG furnish a text book which shall 
be sufficiently comprehensive and scienti.^c to satisfy the wants of the 
many students of psychology and speculative philosophy who are found 
In our higher institutions of learning, but also to prepare a volume 
which may guide the advanced student to a clear understanding and a 
just estimate of the questions which have perpetually appeared and 
reappeared in the history of philosophy. 

THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.— "President Porter's work, tiie result 
of tMrty years' professional labor, is not only the most important pMlosoptiical 
work that has appeared in our language since Sir William Hamilton's, but its 
Jorm as a manual makes it invaluable to students." 

THE PRINCETON REVIEW.— "After a careful examination of this truly great 
work, we are ready to pronounce it the most complete and exhaustive exhibition 
of the cognitive faculties of the human soul to be found in our language, and, so 
far as we know, in any language. The work is a monument of the author's in' 
Bight: industry, learning, and judgment ; one of the great productions of our 
time ; an honor to our country, and a fresh proof that genuine philosophy has not 
died out among us." 

ELEMENTS OF INTELLECTUAL SCIENCE. A Manual for 
Schools and Colleges. By NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., 

late President of Yale College. 8vo, $3.00. 

This is an abridgment of the author's " Human Intellect," contain- 
ing all the matter necessary for use in the class-room, and has been in- 
troduced as a text-book in Yale, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Oberlin, Bates, 
Hamilton, Vassar, and Smith Colleges ; Wesleyan, Ohio, Lehigh, and 
Wooster Universities, and many other colleges, academies, normal and 
high schools. 

THE NEW YORK WORLD.— "The abridgment is very well done, tlie state- 
ments being terse and perspicuous." 

THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.— " Presents the leading facts of Intellecwai 
Mence from the author's point of view, with clearness and vigor." 



CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS' 



ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE, Theoretical and Practical, 
By NOAH PORTER, D.D., LL.D., late President cf Yale 
College. 8yo, $3.00. 

GEORGE S. MORRIS, Professor of Ethics, University of Michigan.—'' I hav". 
read the work witli great interest, and parts of it witti enttiusiasm. It is a vast 
improvement on any of the current text books of ethics. It is tolerant and 
catholic in tone ; not superficially, but soundly, inductive in method and ten- 
dency, and rich in practical suggestion." 

JULIUS H. SEELYE, President AmJierst College.— ''It is copious and clear, 
with ample scholarship and remarkable insight, and I am sure that all teachers 
of Moral Science will find it a valuable aid in their instructions." 

OUTLINES OF MORAL SCIENCE. By ARCHIBALD ALEX- 
ANDER, D.D., LL.D. 12mo, $1.50. 

This book is elementary in its character, and is marked by great 
clearness and simplicity of style. It is intended to lay the foundations 
and elucidate the principles of the Philosophy of Morals. It is widely 
used in colleges and other institutions of learning, and is specially 
adapted for students whose age, or the time at whose disposal, does 
not permit the use of the more extended and abstruse works on ethics. 

THE THEORY OF MORALS. By PAUL JANET, Member of the 
French Academy. Translated under the supervision of 
President Noah Porter. 8vo, $2.50. 

Prof. Janet in this book gives us not only a clear and concise exam- 
ination of the whole study of moral science, but he has introduced into 
the discussion many elements which have hitherto been too mnch 
neglected. The first principles of moral science and the fundamental 
idea of morals the author describes with much precision, and presents 
an interesting and systematic exposition of them. 

SCIENCE.—** The book has lucidity and is full of learning. It is hardly extrav- 
agant to say that so clear and picturesque a treatise, in the hands of an alert 
teacher, might save the study of ethics from its almost inevitable fate of being 
very dull, " 

A THEORY OF CONDUCT. By ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, 
12mo, $1.00. 

Contents : The Theory of Right— The Theory of Duty— The 
Nature of Character— The Motive to Morality. 

Professor Alexander's book is an essay in that department of 
metaphysics in which of recent years perhaps the most interest has 
been av/akened. Rarely has the essence of so vast a problem been 
stated in such succint form. The work contains a very complete and 
searching examination of the various ethical theories and systems, 
together with the positive statement of the author's ®wn doctrine^ 
which finds the ethical impulse essentially religious. 



HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, 



HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. By Prof. FRIEDRICH UEBER 
WEG. Translated by Prof. G. S. Morris, of Michigan Uni 
versity. Edited by Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D., late President 
of Yale College, and Philip Schaff, D.D. Vol. I.— Ancient 
and Mediaeval 5 Vol. II.— Modern. 2 vols., 8vo, $5.00. 

In its universal scope, and its full and exhaustive literature of the 
subject, Ueberweg's "History of Philosophy" has no equal. The 
characteristic features of the work are the compendious presentation 
of doctrines, the survey of the literature relating to each philosophical 
system, biographical notices, the discussion of controverted historical 
points, and compressed criticisms of doctrines from the standpoint of 
modern science and sound logic. 

THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.— '* The work is concise and clear, exact 
and suggestive, compreliensive and critical. It contains a complete presentation 
of the different philosophical schools, and describes, with sufficient minuteness, 
the principal doctrines which belong to each system, and to subordinate branches 
of each system ; by which means a distinct picture is placed before the mind of 
the reader. It meets at once the minds of the ordinary student and of the in- 
dependent inquirer." 

THE N. Y. EVANGELIST.— "Taking the whole together, it furnishes the most 
complete and reliable apparatus for the study of philosophy which has ever been 
placed in the hands of American students." 

REALISTIC PHILOSOPHY. Defended in a Philosophic Series, 
By JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., President of Princetoi? 
College. VoL 1.— Expository; Vol. 2.— Historical and Critical. 
2 vols., 12mo, $3.00. 

In the first volume the principal philosophic questions of the day 
^i-e discussed, including the Tests of Truth, Causation, Development, 
and the Character of our World. In the second volume the same ques- 
tions are treated historically. The systems of the philosophers who 
have discussed them are stated and examined, and the truth and error 
in each of them carefully pointed out. 

THE N. Y. OBSERVER.—" Its style is so clear and direct, its presentation of the 
whole subject is so natural and forcible, that many persons who habitually ignore 
discussions of abstract topics, would be charmed into a new intellectual interest 
by giving Dr. McCosh's work a careful consideration." 

HARPER'S MAGAZINE.—" These eminently cogent and instructive volumes 
are designed for exposition and defence of fundamental truths. The distinct but 
correlated subjects are treated with equal simplicity and power, and cover in 
brief much of the ground occupied by larger publications, togeth3r with much €C 
teidecendent lines of thought that he outside their plan." 



CHARLES SGRIBNEKS SONS 



Modern philosophy. From Descartes to Schopenhauer and 
Hartmann. By Prof. FRANCIS BOWEN, of Harvard Univen 
sity. 8yo, $3.00. 

The purpose of this book has been to furnish, within moderate 
compass, a comprehensive and intelligible account of the metaphysical 
J5ystems of the great men who have been the leaders of European 
thought on philosophical subjects for nearly three centuries. Special 
treatises, such as Kant's ''Critique" and Hartmann's '* Philosophy 
of the Unconscious," are made the subjects of elaborate commentary, 
and expounded in all their leading features, with great care and 
minuteness. 

THE N. Y. EVENING POST.— " Excellent in every respect; clear, sctiolarly, 
vigoroas, often vivacious, full of sound learning, acute criticism, genial appreci- 
ation, and the best spirit of pWlosophy." 

DESCARTES AND HIS SCHOOL. By KUNO FISCHER. Trans- 
lated from the Third and Revised German Edition, by J. P, 
Gordy, Ph.D., Professor of Pedagogics in Ohio University. 
Edited by Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D. 8vo, $3.50. 

Kuno Fischer has the rare art of combining French lucidity of 
exposition with German thoroughness and profundity. 

His volume on Descartes is divided into four parts : a general in- 
troduction ; the biography of Descartes ; an exposition and criticism of 
his system ; and an account of its development and modification by 
the occasionalists. 

PROF. GEORGE T. LADD.— "As done into good and clear Englisn by Dr. 
Gordy, it has a combination of excellent qualities that can be found in no other 
Bimilar work. It is at the same time exhaustive and not tedious, popular in the 
best sense •f the word, and yet accurate and scholarly— a thoroughly readable, 
trustworthy, and improving history of modern speculative thought." 

GERMAN PSYCHOLOGY OF TO-DAY. The Empirical School, 
by Th. RIBOT, Director of the Revue Philosophique. Trans- 
lated from the Second French Edition, by Jas. IVI. Baldwin, 
B.A., Fellow Princeton College. With a Preface by James 
McCosh, DD., LL.D. Crown 8vo, $2.00. 
The object of this book is to give an account of the valuable re- 
searches made in the field of psycho-physical inquiry by German in- 
vestigators, beginning with Herbart and his school, and continuing 
with the researches of Lotze, Mtiller, Weber, Helmholtz, Wundt, 
Fechner, and minor scientists. 

THE N. Y. SUN.— "A work likely to be made a text book in American Unt 
versities, this version offers for the first time to English readers a conspectus ol 
contemporary German speculation on the relations of the mind to the brain. In 
this volume will be found discussed with admirable classification the discoveries^ 
theories, and tendencies of such men as Herbart, Lotze, Fechner, etc." 



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